I Became a Vulpix
by Anshee-Rose
Summary: A young female student wakes up one day to find herself turned into a grievously wounded vulpix having barely escaped death. After a hectic stay at a pokemon centre, she is adopted by a family and lives on as the oldest daughter's pet. Read on as she tries to adapt to her new life and to uncover the mysteries behind her transformation and her wound. Updated monthly.
1. Chapter 1

"Time of death?"

"May 20th, 1:08."

That was today's date, right? Who were the people talking? Were there people in my room?

Wait, what? Death? I wasn't dead. What was going on?

Me eyes were open, but my vision was very blurry, especially on its periphery. Were my eyes damaged? I didn't seem to be able to move them. Trying to do something that would indicate that I was not dead, I realized that I could not move at all. It took me a few more seconds to notice that I was not actually breathing.

Dead? I was dead? What had happened? I had gone to bed but two hours ago, and I woke up... dead? Who were the people around me? Doctors and nurses? The ceiling above me was white, and what little I could see of the room I was in looked vaguely like a hospital.

My heart wasn't beating, but if it were, it would be breaking records. I felt incredibly nervous and scared. I couldn't move at all, but I needed to make some sort of sign to show the doctors I was awake and well alive. Maybe they could restart my heart and save me. If not, my brain would eventually suffocate and I would actually die.

I noticed that I could hear everyone talking very clearly and follow every conversation at once. I could even hear their hearts still racing, probably from their nervous attempts at saving me. From the sounds of it, they had started putting their tools back together to clean the room and had given up on me. I wasn't dead. I wasn't dead!

One of the nurses put her hand above my eyes to close them. It looked so big up close... Way bigger than I would have expected.

"Huh?" She said, visibly surprised.

"What's wrong?" Another one asked.

"I can't close her eyes."

"Let me see."

The second nurse brought one of those small flashlights to examine my eyes and pointed it towards me. I could see myself in the glass before she turned it on. I couldn't see clearly because the light blinded me shortly after, but I was absolutely positive that I saw a short muzzle covered in red-orange fur, with a cute snout and adorable black eyes. Was that me? Was I a fox?

I suddenly gasped for air as my heart randomly restarted. The pain in my chest was unbearable, but was nothing compared to the pain I could feel in my lower gut, as if it had been skinned then covered in salt. The second I started coughing, several of the doctors rushed to me, giving me an oxygen mask to help me breathe. They shouted several words I didn't understand. The mask I was given was changed, and before I could understand what was going on, I lost consciousness.

I woke up slowly, still out from the anesthetic I was given, but well alive. My head felt a lot clearer, but I still didn't fully understand the situation I was in. Was it a dream? Had I really become a fox? What happened between the time I went to sleep and the time I woke up dead? Opening my eyes, I realized I was indeed in a hospital, but my vision was still blurry. Extremely nervous, I raised my hand up to my eyes.

There was no hand. Only a brown paw. I tried closing it into a fist and spreading its fingers to make sure it was mine, and despite the obvious evidence, I had a hard time believing it. I remained immobile for several minutes, trying to feel my body, still trying to guess whether or not I was dreaming. I could feel fur softly skimming my skin - my fur. I could feel that my feet, or my hind paws, had only four fingers that I could control. The more I waited, the more I became aware of this new body of mine, and the more I realized that I was not dreaming and that all of this was actually my body. The paws, the fur, the little claws that I could only partially retract, the muzzle that magically disappeared from my field of vision if I was not focusing on it, the long, pointy ears that I could move around, and finally, the tails.

It took me a few seconds to realize that I did not have only one tail, but six. I couldn't exactly move them independently, but I could feel each one of them separately. Having a tail - or six for that matter - was a weird feeling, which I found strangely enjoyable. I found myself moving them for fun, which happened to help me relax in a situation in which I shouldn't be relaxed at all. I was in a hospital, turned into a six-tailed fox, and had just escaped death, and I had no idea what had happened or where exactly I was. What else had changed? Were my parents aware of this?

Laying on my right side, I forced myself to breathe slowly, trying to calm down and think. I could finally move my head and scouted around, meaning to at least know where I was. The room I was in looked like a typical hospital room. Several electrodes were attached to my chest and lead to one of those machines that beep regularly together with my heartbeat. There were needles in my front left arm connected to tubes full of different liquids, which I assumed were here to help me heal. One of them probably was some powerful painkiller.

Remembering the immense pain I felt when I could breathe again, I stood up as I could, leaning on my right elbow to be able to see my belly. It was hidden under a massive bandage that covered the entire bottom half of my body, from the middle of the rib cage to the top of the pelvis. I had no idea what was under it, but I could only assume it was responsible for my death, and thought that it would probably be better not to know.

I sighed. What was I going to do ? The only thing I knew was that I was now a grievously wounded mutant fox. I had no idea how to use this new body of mine, I didn't know what I was meant to eat, how to eat, drink, or anything other than what I probably looked like. Although I would be taken care of by humans for a certain amount of time until I healed, I wasn't sure what would happen to me. The nurses didn't seem to be shocked by my having six tails. Did that mean that six-tailed foxes were common in this world? If that was the case, I would probably eventually be released, and I didn't see myself surviving in the wild. My situation was looking extremely bad, if not hopeless.

Trying to learn as fast as I could, I focused on the new senses that I would now have to use. The vision was very bad, as expected from a fox's eyes, but the sense of smell was properly mind-blowing. I could smell so many things I had no idea what most of them were, but I could smell them. There was one very strong odour I recognized to be the odour of blood. Although I could tell odours apart, I didn't know what each of them was for, and I would have to learn that quickly. The sense of hearing was also absurdly good, and I could hear my own heartbeat, as well as vague sounds coming from beyond the door, probably coming from the rest of the hospital. There was another regular and slower heartbeat coming from this very room.

Turning my head towards that noise, I saw a girl sleeping in an uncomfortable position on a chair by the bed. Judging by her clothes, she was not a nurse. I found myself hoping I was her pet, and she was the one who brought me in. Although I didn't like the idea of being a pet at all, I had to admit it was a much better fate than being a wild fox and eventually dying alone in some forest. She was out of my reach, even without the cage put on my bed, probably to stop me from rolling over or trying to escape. I had no choice but to lay down calmly and wait until someone came over to try to learn what had happened to me.

I seemingly dozed off, as I was woken up by one of the nurses who was coming to check on me. She was wearing a white blouse and the typical hat with a red cross on it. Her hair was dyed pink, and had two weird circles on the side. I instantly thought of nurse Joy from the pokemon games I used to play. If that was true, then my having six tails could only mean one thing...

"Oh, hello, Vulpix." She said when she noticed I was staring at her.

So I became a vulpix. Not just a regular fox - a _vulpix_. My first feeling after realizing that was an intense excitement as I pictured myself fighting other pokemon, jumping several meters high and throwing gigantic flames like in the anime. The idea of having those powers was extremely exciting, so much so that I temporarily forgot how dire my situation actually was.

"How are you feeling?" the nurse asked, carefully removing the cage from the bed so she could touch me. "I am nurse Joy, the head of the hospital. I'll be taking care of you until you recover."

So she was indeed nurse Joy, like in the games and the anime. Did that mean the world I was in was that exact one? If it was the same world as the games, then this was a pokemon centre, and I was in one of the towns I knew from the games. The nurse was talking to me as if she expected me to reply. What was I supposed to do? Could pokemon here understand humans, like in the anime? And if I answered, would I just be saying "vulpix"? How did I even talk with a muzzle? And in what language? The nurse was speaking English. What would happen if I replied in plain English? What if I made a mistake and actually spoke a human language when I wasn't meant to be able to? How would I be treated if they knew I had been transformed into a vulpix? The mysteries surrounding pokemon would be easily solved if I could communicate with them while being a pokemon. Would that mean I would be nothing more than a lab rat until scientists had all the answers they wanted? Would I be exhibited as a circus monster, the human who became a pokemon? Would I be accepted by other humans and pokemon? Turning back into a human didn't seem very likely to happen, and I was probably stuck in this body for the rest of my life. The idea of them discovering the truth scared me. From the looks of it, they were not aware of that, and didn't know whether or not them discovering the truth would be a good thing for me. Did they actually know and were just playing a game with me? How intelligent was vulpix supposed to be? I decided to remain silent and just stare at the nurse. I needed to gather more information before making a decision.

"Your constants are good, at least," she commented, looking at the beeping machine, apparently not upset by my lack of verbal response. "I think you're out of danger now. Still, that was quite the night for us. And for you, I suppose."

She stretched her arm forward to pet me, but I dodged the hand by pushing myself backwards.

"Shhh," she said, moving her hand slowly towards me. "There's nothing to be afraid of. I'm here to help you."

Her hand looked a lot too big now that I was a vulpix. It felt a bit scary, but at the same time, had a weird friendly scent that I could not describe. I eventually decided to allow her to touch me, and she gently stroked the back of my head. It was a very enjoyable and relaxing feeling, especially in my state of anxiety.

"Are you still in pain?" she asked, apparently surprised. "Can you hear me?"

I still wasn't sure what to do. It seemed she was expecting an answer, and I remembered that in the anime, pokemon could nod to say either yes or no, but this couldn't be the anime. I had to take a risk, or the nurse would start asking herself questions that might be dangerous for me. I nodded to mean that I could hear her and understand her.

"Ah, good!" she sighed, relieved. "You've lost a lot of blood. I thought there might have been brain damage. We will need to test that anyway, but for now, you need to recover. You'll be staying here for a while, I'm afraid."

She stopped petting me, which disappointed me greatly, and proceeded to touch my body in various places for reasons I wasn't too sure of - probably checking if my muscles were alright after the blood loss. She carefully avoided the bandaged part of my belly, which I assumed was where the wound was.

"You are still very tense," she noticed. "Sorry, I can't give you more morphine. You're already close to the limit. You'll have to bear with the pain for now. Are you hungry?"

I wasn't hungry at all, and the prospect of having to eat food in front of her was scary and embarrassing. I had no idea how to eat, and if she noticed that, she would start asking herself questions.

"Can you stand?"

I stood up from my lying position as best I could. Standing on all fours felt extremely embarrassing - all the more so because I realized I was completely naked. My tails were down, covering my bottom, and my ears kept moving towards every new sound they could detect. I didn't stay in that position for too long, for my legs soon became very tired and I just fell back on my side.

"That's pretty good news. Unfortunately, you're going to feel very weak for a couple more days. You're barely recovering from the operation. I don't know how well you will heal. Time will tell. At least your life is not in danger anymore."

She stretched an arm and pushed a button by the head of the bed which I had not noticed. I heard a bell ring far away, and a nurse who was not wearing that weird pink hair soon came.

"Give her some food and water and have someone watch her while she eats. If needed, help her stand still. Have someone watch her night and day. If any journalists come, you have my permission to insult them, but do not let them anywhere near her and do not answer their questions. Call the security if they are being pushy. They'll have to deal with me if they want to learn anything about this, and I'll be damned if I let them disturb this vulpix."

"Yes, nurse Joy," the other nurse replied politely.

The nurse with the pink hair turned to me and smiled.

"You can push that button if you need something, but do not push it for no reason or you will be punished! I have other duties to attend to, so I can't stay here, but I will visit you soon again. You might not be aware of it, but surviving this made you special."

Surviving what? Special? Was I some kind of survivor of some catastrophe? What had happened? Why did everyone play the pronoun game to make sure I didn't know what was going on? Why would journalists be interested in my case? Was there anyone able to answer my questions? Did they assume I knew?

Or did _they_ know? Were they aware I was a human and wanted to keep journalists from visiting me for that reason? Why else would journalists want to see a wounded vulpix, anyway? Was that why nurse Joy seemed to be expecting an answer from me earlier, and not because pokemon were on average more intelligent than animals? Did they know my actual name?

The other nurse came back shortly after with two bowls, which she put by my side, and nurse Joy left. The nurse sat on the chair the girl was previously sleeping on, but had left.

"Are you not hungry?" she asked. "Maybe you're thirsty. Can you drink? I have a feeding bottle, if you can't drink from the bowl."

I refused to drink from the feeding bottle, offended and ashamed at the idea, and tried to drink from the bowl. Unfortunately, my shaky legs couldn't support me and I dropped my muzzle into it, knocking it over and spilling water mostly over the floor. I eventually resolved to drink with the nurse's help, as I was unbearably thirsty. The nurse was nice enough not to take me on her lap and just held the bottle at a comfortable height for me to drink while laying on my side. My pride took a violent hit when I did that, but the circumstances were special, and I had no other choice. Once repleted, I pushed the bottle away with one of my front paws and sighed.

"Hey, it's not so bad!" the nurse said, trying to cheer me up. "You'll heal eventually. I hope your stay here won't be a bad experience. We'll keep someone by your side to play with you if you want!"

I didn't want to play. I had no idea what games foxes or pokemon played, anyway. I wanted explanations. Why was I a vulpix? Why was I wounded? Who was the girl sleeping by the bed when I woke up? Where was I? And most importantly, was I really in the anime's world? Who could answer these questions if the humans didn't know I was victim of a transformation?

Thinking about it, this world couldn't be the same as the anime's world, for the physics in the pokemon anime were close to non-existant. It was probably some kind of realistic version of it, where pokemon did make sense, and I was trapped in it with no knowledge of it whatsoever. It couldn't be the same as my previous world either for obvious reasons. I had no clue what kind of world I lived in and I had no way of gathering information about it. I was stuck in this small room, bound to machines meant to check on my health, until I was allowed to finally leave, but that would be too late to learn anything and I would be left to my own devices. Despite being firmly atheist, I found myself praying to any god that could possibly exist to help me out of the mess I had found myself in. And I didn't even know why or how...

While I was thinking, the nurse took the bowl of food away, understanding that I would not accept to eat. She gently petted me and stroked the back of my head like nurse Joy did earlier. She looked sad.

"It's sad that you have to go through this," she eventually said, noticing I was staring at her with curious eyes.

She then started talking about herself, probably to try to entertain me, but I was not listening. Was it common for humans to talk to pokemon like that? It was obvious by now that pokemon were supposed to understand human language, but I still had no idea whether or not I was supposed to be able to answer. I knew I could answer yes or no by nodding, which was a form of communication, but I didn't know how much further it could go.

"You're not listening, are you?" the nurse asked, acting upset to guilt me. "Maybe you want to sleep? It's barely 8pm, I didn't think you'd be sleepy yet, especially after sleeping so much today!"

That meant that a full day had not passed yet. It was still the... 20th of May, if I remembered correctly. Why was it so difficulty to remember that single date? Was it the drugs?

"There's someone who wants to see you!" the nurse said, excited.

She stood up and opened the door to let the visitor in. I had no idea how I did that, but I instantly recognized the odour of the girl who was sleeping on the chair a few hours before. I was actually surprised she was allowed to stay by my side after the operation that seemingly saved my life. Wasn't access to the recovery room usually only granted to nurses, or occasionally visitors?

"Hey Vulpix." the girl said.

I could hear in her voice a lot of different emotions. She was obviously relieved that I survived, but I couldn't say she sounded very happy. She sounded more like she was just about to break down in tears.

"Do you remember me?" she asked, sitting on the chair the nurse had brought for her - the very chair she was sleeping on when I woke up from the anesthetic.

I slowly moved my head from left to right, staring at her. She was a very pretty young adult, probably twenty to twenty-five at most. Her brown hair was cut rather short, probably around the base of her neck, and tied into a small ponytail behind her head. Her blue eyes wer shaking slightly. I expected her to start crying at any moment.

"Ah," she said, visibly disappointed. "I'm the one who... found you. I brought you here. You don't remember what happened, do you?"

I moved my head again. If she said she found me, then I couldn't have been her pet in the first place, which meant I was a wild vulpix, which made all my fears about living in the wild come back to me. The girl started petting me slowly. Her hand had unladylike short nails and she was not wearing any jewellery or perfume.

"She's breathing fast," she noticed. "I think I'm scaring her. I should leave."

As she withdrew her hand, I put one of my front paws on it to tell her not to leave. She tried to take it back from me, but I pushed the hand onto the bed and weakly applied pressure to it. The girl smiled.

"That's not a surprise," the nurse commented. "After all she's been through, it's a miracle she is still alive. And she's probably in pain right now. You should stay with her, she seems to like you."

I honestly had no clue who that girl was, but if what she said was right, then she had saved my life by bringing me to the hospital - or should I call it a pokemon centre - after finding me wounded and dying. The least I could do was show some gratitude and allow her to pet me. I knew how she felt - I was always upset when I saw stray cats and they refused to be touched.

At least, I thought it was my life she had saved. Or was it? If she had "found" me as she said, then it was safe to assume that my body was actually moving before being wounded and eventually dying, which meant that it was not _my_ body. I had taken possession of a vulpix's body. How? And what happened to the original body owner? What if she... died, and I somehow revived the body by taking control of it, which would explain why I was unable to breathe and was considered clinically dead, then started breathing again out of nowhere? What if they were aware of that, and the girl witnessed it and reported it? Then, they would know I was actually human. The way they acted towards me didn't feel like they considered me to be human. They were petting me and talking to me as if I were a child, not a young adult, and as if I were less intelligent than them. If they knew, wouldn't they hesitate before petting me or globally treating me like a normal vulpix? And if they knew I was human, they would know I was not going to try to escape, so why the cage?

Those were too many questions I couldn't answer, and I tried my best to get them out of my head. I didn't need any more things to worry about. I was a vulpix and I had to accept it. I could at least try to enjoy this girl carefully petting me as I held her arm between my front paws, but the feeling of being petted bothered me. Thinking back about it, I was questioning my early wish to be her pet. I didn't like the idea of being someone's pet. As a human, I enjoyed having pets a lot, and I truly loved my pets, but now that I was a vulpix, I didn't want to be a pet. There were a lot of people who did love their pets, but some of them - like my parents - did not, and considered them to be nothing more than furniture. I could only assume the girl who had saved me was more like than like my parents, but even then, being a pet didn't sound like an enjoyable thing. I didn't want to be bound to someone, to have to obey them, and have little to no freedom to do what I wanted. What would I be doing anyway? My cats spent their time sleeping, and my dogs spent their time wallowing alone in a corner hoping one of us would stop being busy on their computer and come play with them. The life of a pet didn't seem fulfilling at all. At least if I were wild, I'd have the freedom to go where I wanted, sleep when I wanted, eat when I wanted, and do what I wanted to. But I would have to hunt for food, and I would probably spend most of my day doing so, which sounded like an immense hassle. At the end of the day, I didn't actually know what I wanted, whether or not they knew I was a human, and whether or not being a pet was the best option for me, but it did feel like a much easier life.

The girl who had apparently saved my life was carefully stroking the back of my head and under my ears as I was lost in my thoughts. Raising my head to her, I noticed she was keeping that sad look in her eyes. I couldn't have been her pet, so why was she so sad? What she said implied we did not know each other. Did she love pokemon that much, or was she shaken by whatever she had seen when she found my body? Was she still worried? Was it because she knew I was a human?

I interrupted her petting with a long yawn. She stood up, understanding it was time for her to leave. She thanked the nurse for allowing her to see me and exited the room. The nurse petted me, put the cage back on my bed, said she would be monitoring me via the beeping machine and a camera, and left the room, switching the lights off. Staring at the void, I laid down as I could, but most positions I tried were painful because of whatever was under the bandages I was wearing. The least uncomfortable one was to lay down on my side, my back straight, a bit like my labrador used to sleep in his old age.

I felt very depressed. In barely a day, my life had completely changed and taken a turn I would never have believed possible. I still had no idea what happened, but I was now certain that I was not dreaming. I had turned into a vulpix and was grievously wounded, and was stuck in a pokemon centre for an unknown amount of time. I didn't know what was going to happen to me in the future, but all I could think of while trying to fall asleep was that despite the dire situation I was in, I felt relieved, for unlike I thought when I woke up, I was well alive.


	2. Chapter 2

I didn't sleep too well, being regularly woken up by my painful belly before falling back into a fragile slumber. Once I was completely awake, it didn't take me long to remember everything that had happened before. There were so many questions I was asking myself, all of them with no answer. I knew that I had become a vulpix and I was persuaded that I was not dreaming, but that was about all I did know. I looked around, trying to find a clock to know what time it was, but I couldn't find any. Why would there be a clock in an animal's room anyway? I was alone in the room, but there were probably nurses awake somewhere, keeping an eye on my health to make sure I was doing well. Nurse Joy had said I was out of danger, but my future was still uncertain.

I had to know whether or not the nurses were fully aware of my situation and of my transformation, as that would probably decide what would happen to me in the future. The more I thought about it, the more I thought that they did not actually know. The girl who apparently saved my life referred to me as a vulpix before I got wounded, which meant that before I was brought to this pokemon centre, I was already a vulpix. However, my first memory was being dead on the operating table as a pokemon, and not as a human, and all my memories before that were of my human self probably in a different world. Had this happened before? Was it possible for humans to turn into pokemon? Or was my case unique? When exactly did I turn into a vulpix?

I had only one choice: to ask them directly. It was probably a risk, but it was the only thing I could do in my current situation. They spoke English, the same one from my previous world, so I could only assume it was the correct language to speak in. I nervously sat up from my laying position, cringing from the pain in my belly. The room I was in felt way too big for a pokemon my size. It was empty and completely silent, so silent that I could hear my own heartbeat coupled with the beeping machine. The lights were switched off and I could barely see anything, especially with my awful fox eyes, but I could smell so many things I had no idea what they were. Although the room was very comfortably warm, I was shaking widely. Taking a deep breath, I stared at the door to make sure no one was coming in and whispered as quietly as I could, afraid someone might hear me:

"Hello?"

All I could hear coming from my muzzle was my name. Vulpix. I repeated the attempt several times, trying to vary the words I was using:

"Hello? Anyone? Hi? Nurses?"

But all I could say was "vulpix". Heavily disappointed and upset, I sighed and let myself fall on my side again. It was obvious I could not talk with this body, and that made me mostly unable to communicate with other humans. There was still the option of writing, but it would be difficult with a paw. It had no opposable thumb, making it impossible to hold a pen.

I felt like my heart skipped a beat when I realized what this meant. The humans were calling me vulpix, which meant vulpix was a completely normal animal, or pokemon, in this world. This also meant that they were aware I could not talk and could only say my name, since pokemon were a usual thing, which itself meant that if they wanted to communicate with me knowing I was actually human, they would have thought of having me write or type what I wanted to say. At the end of the day, I had the answer I had been looking for: they were not aware that I was a transformed human and thought I was just a regular vulpix.

This meant two things for me. First of all, there was a chance for me to live the rest of my life as a regular pokemon. Now that I was certain that no one knew about my transformation, trying to live as a normal vulpix sounded like a better idea than telling the nurses I was a transformed human. I still didn't know whether or not such transformations were usual in this world, but if they were not, I would have an easier time hiding than trying to explain my situation. And if transformations were something that could happen, I could just find a way to tell someone I had undergone one, and they would be able to help me.

The second thing was that my future was a little less uncertain. I saw only two possibilities after I recovered: either I get released into the wild, since I apparently was a wild vulpix before being wounded, or get adopted by someone and live my life as a pet. Although I very much disliked the idea of being a pet, it felt like the easiest life for me. Being in the wild by myself would mean I would need to hunt my own food, find shelters to sleep, and I would be in constant danger. Thinking about it, it didn't sound as dramatic as I first thought when I realized I had turned into a fox. I was a vulpix, which meant I had all those pokemon powers that I could use, and hunting and surviving didn't seem to be as difficult as I imagined.

My thoughts were cut short when the lights abruptly switched on, and a grumpy looking nurse came in. It wasn't any of the nurses that I had seen before. She didn't even bother greeting me and removed the cage from my bed. I didn't notice that a bowl of water had been added while I was sleeping. After noticing the bowl was still full, the nurse looked at me with a scowl, then replaced the cage and left without a word. She probably thought I wanted something when I was trying to say words earlier, and was pissed at me for calling her for no reason.

This was yet another clue that indicated they didn't know I was a human, and could not understand my speech. Having too much trouble regaining my train of thought, I decided to try sleeping more, as I still felt exhausted and I wasn't quite sure I was mentally stable yet.

"Good morning, Vulpix," nurse Joy said, waking me up by taking my cage off.

I blinked several times, unhappy to be disturbed while I was sleeping well, for once. In a last attempt to try to talk to someone, I mumbled a grumpy:

"Morning."

Nurse Joy smiled and petted me on the head.

"Answering? Are you in a good mood today? That's pretty good!"

I wasn't in a particularly bright mood - my belly was still very painful in spite of the pain medication, and my situation was still not looking too good. At least I had a better idea of what was going on, but I still didn't know what happened to me.

"I'm taking you to have an MRI," nurse Joy said, carefully removing the needles in my body. "Let's take off all these nasty needles."

My whole body became tense as she unplugged the needle, as if I expected it to hurt insanely as soon as the needle was out. I jolted and sat down in a rush as my bed started moving on its own, which seemed to amuse the nurse.

"You didn't lose your reaction speed, at least. That is very good news!"

She looked at me, smiling for a few seconds before giving up, disappointed I wasn't sharing her enthusiasm. On my way to the MRI room, I looked around as fast as I could, but couldn't see any other pokemon. There were quite a few nurses, most of which ignored us, and a few other humans here and there. The whole hospital felt disproportionately loud compared to my silent isolated room, and I detected a number of odours I still couldn't recognize.

Before being put in the machine, nurse Joy gave me instructions:

"Stay as still as you can so we can get a clear image. If you don't feel well, don't hesitate to shout! You might be in pain before the exam finishes, but do your best not to move."

I nodded to say that I understood what she was saying. She petted me on the head, asked me to lay on my side, and started the machine. The noises it made felt much louder and scarier as a vulpix than they did as a human, and although I was quite scared, I managed to stand still. The whole exam took a very long time, probably half an hour, feeling like torture. I sighed in relief when the noises stopped and the rail started moving to get me out of the machine. I was brought back to my room, plugged to the machines again, and a nurse was instructed to watch me until nurse Joy's return.

She came back a lot too long afterwards, staring at a weird sheet of paper that was entirely black and staring at it. She was heavily focused on it and looked like she was worried. Worried as well, I poked her with one of my front paws as she was coming close to the bed to urge her to tell me what was going on.

"Aren't you impatient", she smiled, taking my paw off her leg and carefully making me lay down. "Don't worry, you're doing quite good. Your muscles are healing and your bowels are properly placed. Your organs show no sign of damage either."

She paused, checking the machine I was connected to.

"Your vitals are looking good, but we're going to keep you for at least a week to make sure everything is alright, then we'll be able to release you!"

This still didn't answer the question that was worrying me the most. Now that I was certain they didn't know about my transformation: what was going to happen to me? Was I going to be released into the wild?

Nurse Joy brought the bowl of food next to me.

"Have you not eaten anything yet? You should. It's not good to go with an empty stomach. It's only been two days since you woke up, but you should eat regularly."

She stared at me, making me extremely uncomfortable. The bowl contained some weird brown croquettes that didn't look very appealing. They had a pretty enjoyable scent, but the idea of eating some dog food from a dog dish was embarrassing. I didn't want to do it, let alone be seen doing it. Realizing that those things would be the only food I would get to eat, I felt sad. No more proper cuisine or bakery for me, especially if I was released to the wild. Having no proper food to eat made me upset, but I was hungry, and eventually decided to turn my back to the nurse and eat as quietly as I could. The croquettes tasted surprisingly good, and eating was quite easy, although I couldn't chew with my mouth closed like humans could.

Nurse Joy waited patiently until I was done eating to pet me on the head, as if to congratulate me.

"You'll be given a litter box today. It's around noon, so we still have time for activities. Do you want to see Agnes again?"

I had no idea who Agnes was. I just nodded, curious. If the nurses were willing to let that person see me, she couldn't be all that bad.

The person who entered the room was none other than the girl who had apparently saved my life. So her name was Agnes. That was a very... noble name, quite uncommon at least in my world.

"Hey Vulpix," she said as she sat on the chair nurse Joy had brought in for her. "How are you?"

Of course, she didn't expect an answer, at least not spoken, but some sign or movement that showed I was fine.

"She's alright," nurse Joy replied for me. "She's recovering well, we should be able to let her out this Sunday. We're just keeping her in for now for safety, but it will take a few months for her to recover completely."

"That's awesome!" Agnes said, genuinely relieved.

"Do you still plan on adopting her?"

"Of course. We're preparing to receive her at home."

I stopped listening at that point. I wasn't sure how to feel. In a way, I felt immensely relieved, almost happy: I wouldn't have to hunt for food, I wouldn't have to be careful about where I slept, and my life wouldn't be in constant danger. I was going to be her pet.

I was going to be a pet. Remembering my own behaviour towards my cats, I felt annoyed. Was she going to be as clingy and annoying? I couldn't think of being lifted all the time against my will, talked to as if I was a child, forced to obey stupid orders and overall having little freedom as anything good. While my survival would be guaranteed, I would probably be restricted by a lot of rules, which would make my stay there feel like I was a prisoner rather than a member of the family. Were pokemon treated differently from regular animals because they were pokemon?

Were there any regular animals at all in this world? The anime didn't seem to have any and everything revolved around pokemon, but what about this world? Were there normal cats, foxes, dogs, birds and everything? What were their relation to pokemon? Were they scared of them, could they communicate? I was basically a fire-breathing fox and I knew for sure I could bark, yelp and whine like normal foxes, so would I be able to talk to them?

"Hop by the nurses when you leave, we need to have someone watch her constantly," nurse Joy said from the door, about to leave.

"Will do," Agnes promised.

She turned to me. I could see in the way she behaved that she wanted to pet me, but was hesitating. Did she not trust me? That wouldn't be a surprise, considering I was a wounded animal and potentially dangerous. I had never shown any sign of animosity before, and vulpix was supposed to be a friendly pokemon, so why was she reluctant? She probably was just afraid of doing something wrong and not sure she could pet me yet, but I was rather fine with it. Although being petted was quite enjoyable, being touched all the time by people I did not know was very annoying. I had an idea of how she was feeling, and in an attempt to make her feel better, I put a paw on her leg to try to allow her to pet me. She eventually did and displayed a shy smile. She spent an hour or so with me, just petting me softly, before leaving, saying she needed to return to class.

She was a student, obviously, although I had no idea what she was studying. Things were making more sense now: she was visiting me because she planned on taking me as a pet, and even took on her noon break to come see me. Did she want to adopt me because she saved my life?

As expected, a nurse entered my room after Agnes left, not leaving me alone. I wasn't sure if they feared for my life still, or feared I might try to escape, but I was getting annoyed by it. Of course, there was no way they could have known, since they thought I was just a vulpix, and I had to deal with the annoying intruder. I simply turned my back to her and fell asleep.

I slept quite well. Although my wound was still painful, it did not wake me up at all through the night, and allowed me to sleep uninterrupted. Unfortunately, I still felt exhausted when I woke up. I was alone and it was probably very early in the morning. I took the chance to use the litter box, although I was extremely ashamed of it, and went back to resting, trying to think about what being a pet would mean for me.

I was disturbed not too long after when the whole corridor became extremely noisy. I could hear a bed rolling and voices screaming instructions. The bed passed by my room, but I couldn't see what was on it. Another pokemon on the verge of death, I assumed, who was taken to the same operation room I had been in. Sighing, I turned my back to the door, silently cursing this unbelievably good hearing of mine, trying to go back to what I was thinking about.

The bed started rolling again, but slower. The lights in my room were switched on, and several nurses came in. One of them was nurse Joy. I stood up, slightly happy to see her, and tried to get her attention, but she completely ignored me. Upset, I laid down again, looking at the new bed and the pokemon on it as if they were invading my personal space.

It was a female houndour, who was unconscious. I couldn't see clearly because of all the nurses around her, plugging her into another set of monitors and carrying different bags of liquid similar to mine. I could very clearly smell blood, as the scent was overwhelmingly present all over the room after she had come in. It wasn't an odour I was too fond of, but it made me feel a bit weird. It made me kind of excited, as if it was giving me energy. Brushing that feeling off, I turned my back to this new parasite.

"Sorry, Vulpix," I heard nurse Joy say once the other pokemon was properly installed. "You'll have to share your room for the time being. We are in dire need of space, and since you two... are similar, I figured this would be the best place to be in. She is unconscious for now, but she should wake up soon."

She petted me on the head as I stood up. She held me so I wouldn't jump off my bed and potentially destroy everything as I was still plugged to the machines. I wanted to go see the houndour. She had the same wound as I did, and was apparently saved as well. That would be my chance to know what she had.

"Careful now! You can't get off your bed yet. Just sit down and rest!"

She stayed with me, persuaded I wouldn't obey, and she was right. I was staring at the other pokemon, whose back was turned to me so I wouldn't see her wound, which was covered in bandages like mine. I tried to insist and struggle, but nurse Joy was stronger than me and I eventually gave up. After she left and put the cage back on the bed, I spent hours staring at the houndour, as if I hoped I would suddenly get the ability to see through skin, fur and bandages and see exactly what wound she had, and consequently what wound I had.

In the evening, the houndour's ears twitched. She slowly turned around, looking at her surroundings and trying to understand where she was. She eventually noticed me and stared at me. She was in pain and had trouble breathing, and silently skimmed over my body as I was staring at her.

I was scared. This was the first pokemon I ever met, and I had no idea what to do. Did pokemon talk to one another? Was it even possible? Did pokemon have a universal language, or was their understanding limited to their species?

The houndour struggled for a moment, trying to get herself in a more comfortable position, but it was obvious there was no way for her not to be in pain. Her eyes wandered around the room. I saw her struggle again, as if she was trying to stand up, but she failed to and gave up, sighing.

A new odour appeared at the door that I did not recognize. A grown man who was likely to be the houndour trainer rushed at her before nurse Joy removed the cage from her bed. He was crying and talking to his pokemon, trying to reassure her as nurse Joy was trying to reassure him.

"There has been heavy damage done to her spine," she explained. "She might lose the ability to move her hind legs. She might be paralyzed for life. She's not completely out of danger yet, but there is a chance she survives."

"That's alright," the man cried, hugging and petting his pokemon. "That's okay, I'll take care of you, even if you can't walk, I'll be with you."

As the houndour was hugging her trainer as best she could, I noticed she was crying. I stared at them for a few seconds before I felt like my stomach was reduced to a single atom. A cold, desperate shiver travelled up my lungs and spine to my head and eventually muzzle, and I had to fight myself not to cry.

I was alone. I had never noticed it or thought about it, but I was alone. I didn't have any family in this world, nor anyone who liked me. There was no one by my bed when I woke up, no one to stroke my head and tell me everything would be okay, no one to cry on my shoulder and no shoulder to cry on. I woke up alone, in the dark, stuck with my realizations and my uncertain future, having barely escaped death and struggling with my new body. It was like my whole world had just crumbled besides me. Although I wasn't one for warm hugs, I felt like I could definitely use some cuddling.

"What's that?" the trainer asked, turning to me.

His eyes were red and swollen from the crying. He looked relieved, although still worried, and was starting to pay attention to his surroundings.

"She came in two days ago," nurse Joy answered. "She suffered the same wound as your pokemon did. We managed to save her and she is now recovering, so there is hope for houndour as well."

His eyes were filled with anger, guilt and jealousy as he was staring at me. I felt uncomfortable, and rather scared, but the trainer eventually forced a smile:

"Good luck, little one," he said.

He kissed his pokemon on the forehead and was lead outside by nurses. I stared at him for as long as my eyes could see him, deeply jealous of the attention and love his houndour was receiving. Nurse Joy, noticing my dismay, removed the cage from my bed and sat by it, stroking my head to try to console me. I still felt depressed. It wasn't the same thing. She wasn't my mom or my trainer. She had no actual love for me. It was her job, and she was playing a role, and her role was to make me feel better. There was no true affection - just some fake attachment. She stayed with me for a very long time, probably hours, trying to console me, but it wasn't working - it could not work.

The machine attached to the houndour started beeping loudly. A red light was showing on the screen. Nurse Joy instantly put me back on my bed and rushed to her, while other nurses were running into the room, screaming "code blue". The houndour's trainer was denied access to the room and its curtains were closed. The pokemon's heart had just stopped. She was dying.

Nurses hurried around her. The houndour was given several shots of something they called epinephrine while someone was pushing on her chest to get her heart to beat again. Their efforts were unfortunately unsuccessful, and a new machine was brought in.

"Clear!" one of the nurses shouted as she applied two weird metallic objects to her chest.

There was the distinct sound of a powerful electric shock. The houndour's body jolted upwards.

"She's still not breathing. Clear!"

The nurses repeated the operation several times. The beeping machine was not throwing an alarm anyone, and was just emitting a constant high-pitched noise.

The houndour turned her head to me. I could hear her desperate attempts to breathe while her heart was not functioning. I could see the helplessness in her eyes as she was staring at me, hoping I could do something. I could see her staring at me, trying her best to stick to something in this world. I could see the struggle and fear in her eyes as she trying to survive. The nurses were still hurrying around her when she breathed out slowly, her eyes fixed on mine and mine on hers, as she was sighing her last breath. She was dead.

"Time of death?" Nurse Joy asked.

"19:08, May 22nd."

The nurses slowly left the room while only a few, including Joy, stayed to clean up the weird shocking machine. They plugged out the beeping one, and the whole room was abruptly thrown into a sad, lifeless silence.

I was speechless. I felt like I couldn't breathe. I was reminded of my own death, and how I abruptly gasped for air and eventually survived. My eyes were glued on the houndour, spying on every cell of her body, every hair of fur I could see moving, hoping that one of them would be her chest inflating again, and that she would gasp for air like I did. Everything was silent as a graveyard. Even the machine I was connected to seemed to have shut down in respect for the houndour's death. The nurses around the room had given up, slowly and silently tidying up the room, writing on papers, exchanging sad looks. It all fell violently surreal, as if I didn't exist on the same plane as they did, and the whole room was focused on mourning.

The houndour's trainer came back in, limping. His legs approximately carried him by his partner's bed and failed him. He fell on his knees, shaking widely, unable to cry anymore. His head slowly fell down against his pokemon's as his back was shaken by his soft sobbing. His fingers were repeatedly stroking the back of the houndour's head, spreading the fur and looking into the skin, as if he was hoping to find a strand of life there that he could hold on to. The remaining nurses left the room, except for nurse Joy who was standing still by the other person, respectfully standing back to give him time to bid his pokemon a proper farewell. After several minutes of desperate cuddling, the trainer stood up and closed his pokemon's eyes.

He turned to me. He wasn't even crying. His face looked distant, as if he was looking beyond me, or I was a ghostly entity his brain could not quite comprehend. I wasn't even sure he was actually looking at me. His jaw started shaking, slowly at first, then more and more, until his teeth started grinding together and his lips were shaken by repressed tears.

"You," he said, breaking the deafening silence of the room.

He walked to me and pointed a finger towards me, shaking. After a few seconds, his eyes turned angry. It was the deepest, most intense hatred I had ever seen, and it was directed at me. The man hesitated for a second, then jumped at me.

"You!" he yelled, grabbing my throat with both hands and closing his fingers on it.

Taken by surprise, I did not have time to dodge. He lifted me above my bed by the neck, staring right into my soul.

"How dare you?" he shouted as he tried to kill me. "How dare you live when she died?"

Nurse Joy, too surprised to move until then, rushed to him and tried to make him lose his grip on my throat. Powerless, she ran to the corridor and called for help.

I was trying to make the man drop his murder. I was trying to use my hind legs to push him away, but they were weak and ineffective. He was clenching on my throat, suffocating me, his eyes riveted on mine. Everything around me started rotating as I was losing consciousness.

The man lost his grip and fell down. I fell back on the bed, coughing and gasping for air. Nurse Joy rushed at me, giving me one of those masks to help me breathe, using a stethoscope to make sure I could breathe properly. I could finally breathe, although it was painful, and looked at where the houndour's trainer was but a second ago.

Agnes was standing on him on the floor, controlling both of his arms with one hand, crushing his head on the ground with the other. There was no violence in her movement, only controlled strength. The man was entirely powerless. Policemen soon came in, handcuffed the man and took him away. Agnes was denied access to me as nurse Joy was taking care of me.

"What happened?" Agnes asked, clearly worried.

"That man attacked this vulpix," nurse Joy answered, taking her stethoscope away, taking me against her chest to reassure me. "His houndour died, I was giving him one last chance to say goodbye to her, and... he went batshit insane. He tried to kill her."

"Is she alright?"

"She should be. We'll know for sure in a few hours. I'll keep a close watch on her for now, but she can breathe."

Agnes looked sad at the mention of the dead houndour, but she was still very nervous and extremely worried. Understanding that there was nothing she could do to help me, she apologized to nurse Joy for fighting in a hospital and left the room, looking at me with worried eyes. I stared back at her, realizing what she had done for me. She had just saved my life. Again.


	3. Chapter 3

Nurse Joy stayed with me for what felt like hours, holding the mask on my muzzle to help me breathe until she was satisfied with the way my heart was beating. My lungs felt like they were on fire. Every breath I took was torture. Had nurse Joy not given me oxygen, I would probably have passed out, if not worse.

"Vulpix? Look at me," she said gently.

She flashed one of those flashlights in my eyes, probably to test their reaction, then examined my chest again. She stood up, sighing in relief.

"You'll be fine," she explained, putting the flashlight back in a pocket of her lab coat. "At least physically. I'm not sure what went through that guy's mind."

She turned around, looking at the dead houndour who was still staring at me.

"It's sad you had to see this," she said, as if to apologize. "Don't worry, you won't die. Your wound is closing and your vitals are stable. You're out of danger."

Several nurses came in to take the body away. They were walking slowly, looking at me from the corner of their eyes, worried for me. Nurse Joy sat by my bed and tried to prevent me from looking at what they were doing, but failed.

I was lost. I wasn't as shocked as I would have imagined I would be after someone tried to kill me, but I didn't understand what had happened. Why did he try to kill me? I wasn't responsible for the houndour's death. I wasn't responsible for her wound or for mine, so why attack me? What was he trying to get revenge for?

"How dare you live when she died?"

I could hear the man's words as I was suffocating. I could see his eyes, full of hatred and staring at me while I was dying, like I was staring at his houndour while she was dying. I didn't understand why he hated me. I had done nothing.

My memory went back to before the houndour passed away. The man was kneeling by her bed, trying to comfort her, and they were both crying. And I was left aside, alone, as I was left aside now, alone again, with no one to comfort me after this.

I looked at nurse Joy in the eyes, then started pawing her coat, whining. All I wanted was a bit of actual affection. Some attention. Someone to hug me and tell me things would be okay. I had just escaped death a second time, and there was no one by my bed, again.

Nurse Joy seemed to understand what I wanted, as she told a nurse to find Agnes if she was still in the pokemon centre. The nurse obeyed, and as expected, Agnes entered the room shortly after. She walked to my bed, sitting on the chair nurse Joy had freed for her.

"I think she could use some company," nurse Joy said, her voice down. "You should stay with her for now."

Agnes nodded and turned to me as nurse Joy was leaving. I extended one of my front legs to stop her from leaving, but Agnes grabbed my paw and started massaging it.

"Hey, Vulpix," she whispered, stroking the top of my head. "You're okay now. The bad man is gone, you're going to recover and in a few days you'll come back home with me."

I turned my head to her, looking at her right in the eyes. They were flickering. The light from the ceiling reflected poorly on the forming tears she was doing her best to withhold.

"You're fine," she repeated. "The nurses will take care of you, you'll heal, and everything will be alright."

I lost it. I had managed to courageously hold my tears back until then, but her last sentence broke me. I started crying. I crawled to her arm as she was resting against the bed, dug my way under her elbow and nested against the side of her chest that was available to me. She covered me with her right arm, petting my head as I was quietly sobbing. Cuddling with what little part of her arm I had, I cried myself to sleep while she was softly petting me, unsure of what to do.

I didn't feel any better the day after. When I woke up, I realized Agnes was gone, which brought tears back to my eyes. Once again, I was alone. Actually alone in this giant room this time, with no one to try to kill me in sight. I didn't know what was going to happen from then on. Agnes would take me as a pet… and then what? I had no idea what this meant for me, and trying to think about it gave me a headache. The rest of the week was going to be incredibly boring, and possibly painful, since there would be no one here with me. I would be alone.

Later that day, nurse Joy came back to examine me, and seemed to be very satisfied with my healing. I still felt unbearably depressed being by myself, but I knew that it would be only for a certain time, and there was hope that I would feel less miserable after leaving the pokemon centre. Nurse Joy spent time to try to make me play, but I didn't want to, and was just laying down on my bed, staring at whatever enabled me not to look at any human for the time being. I wanted to see Agnes.

I silently laughed at myself for breaking down and crying to the point of cuddling with another human. I had been nowhere near death, so what right did I have to be shaken by it? The whole time I had been in this body, I was repeatedly promised I was safe, and I had been, unlike that poor houndour. She had the same wound as me and was sent to an emergency room like me, so why did I survive and she didn't?

That was what the man had said. How dare I survive? It wasn't my fault. I just survived. Could I really be held responsible for living? I didn't know anything - why I was a vulpix, why I was wounded, why that man had tried to kill me - and yet, everyone seemed to be acting like I was a major player in all of it. I wasn't. I was just laying on my bed when the houndour was dying. I couldn't have done anything. Her death wasn't my fault. None of this was.

The day after, I felt strangely relieved and calm, as if nothing that had happened before mattered. I was serene, and the nurses noticed when they were checking on me. It didn't seem to be weird, for nurse Joy was pretty happy with it and tried to get me to play again. Alas, although I would have been in the mood to play or do something to make time fly faster, I refused to, unsure of what games I was supposed to play with humans as a fox. I just wanted this whole week to be over and finally be taken to Agnes' home, where my new life would start.

I spent most of the day being taken to different rooms with all kinds of machines I did not recognize to ensure that my recovery was going well. Once again, I tried to look around to find other pokemon, but I couldn't find any. I could only see humans, most of whom seemed not to care about me. I was silently thankful for that. The excessive attention I had been getting over the past four days, positive or negative, was overwhelming, and I had an urgent desire to be left alone. Although all of this was extremely annoying, I felt like I didn't mind nor even cared. Nothing seemed to matter to me at that point. I was simply existing, free of any worries, and although I had been transformed into a creature I knew basically nothing about, I felt peaceful.

"Alright," nurse Joy smiled after all exams were done. "I'll have other nurses gather the results and I'll look at them. Until then, how about going to the gardens?"

She stared at me, obviously expecting an answer. I nodded silently, void of enthusiasm. I wasn't sure what she meant with gardens, but I could only assume it was some sort of park inside the pokemon centre for sick pokemon to play in.

I became extremely nervous all of a sudden. If she were to take me to that place, I would probably meet other pokemon, and I felt like it wasn't too good of an idea. I had no idea how pokemon behaved with one another, or what I was supposed to say, and I was worried it would be obvious that I was not a pokemon and somehow the humans would notice based on other pokemon's reaction to my behaviour. I struggled to get off nurse Joy's arms, but I was too weak from barely moving for four days and she held me against her chest.

"Don't worry," she said, thinking I was scared. "You won't be interacting with other pokemon at all. I'll keep you in my arms for now, but you need to see some sunlight. It's a bit late in the afternoon, but the sun is still up, so let's go now before it sets."

I turned my head to her. She was kindly smiling at me, full of confidence and friendliness. I was a bit reassured. I wasn't quite ready to interact with other pokemon yet, and I wanted to avoid it for as long as possible. Although I knew it would eventually happen, I was hoping to have a better understanding of my body and of how I was supposed to behave before being faced with that.

The "gardens" nurse Joy referred to were actually so unbelievably big that the word "park" was more accurate to describe it. It was located somewhere behind the hospital buildings, from what I could understand. It was as big as the centre itself and meticulously taken care of. It looked very much like a natural clearance, with a few trees here and there to provide pokemon with some shade if they wanted to sleep, and even had its own pond of clear blue water.

They were accessed through several glass doors from the first floor of the buildings. I had never paid attention to it, but I realized that I was kept at ground level. Thinking about it, it made sense to me: I was brought in dying or probably already dead and taken to an emergency room, which would be difficult with stairs to climb or an elevator to take. It was probably a part of the centre separated from the rest, judging from the unsettling quietness of my room, but I was thankful for it. The first floor itself was very noisy, and only when I came to deal with that much noise did I realize how good my hearing actually was now that I was a fox. When we stepped outside, the noises became completely different, changing from human conversations to pokemon noises I couldn't focus on.

What surprised me the most was the entirely new set of odours that attacked my nose as soon as the doors opened. There were so many new ones that I sneezed several times, which hurt insanely around my belly. As much as I tried to, I was unable to identify any of them. The few odours I was certain I knew - blood, human scent and my own - were completely overridden by this array of new information.

The sun was still quite high in the sky, and the whole place full of light, which mildly hurt my eyes since they got used to the darkness of my room. I didn't understand why nurse Joy said the sun was going to set. There was obviously still plenty of time before it did.

I tried to turn around and scan for other pokemon, but nurse Joy thought I was trying to get off of her arms and held me tighter.

"I can't let you walk on the grass," she said, as if to scold me. "Stand still and enjoy the sun. I'll sit on a bench, you can lay on my lap."

She did so and put me on her lap. I was sitting, focused on what I could see, but there were very few pokemon that I could see. They were mostly common pokemon, like rattata, pidgey, spearow and other basic ones, but all of them belonged to the first generation and I had no idea what pokemon could exist in this world. I could assume I would find at least the first two generations, but I didn't know how many pokemon actually existed and which ones didn't. All pokemon I could see looked like fairly normal animals: rats, mice, birds, cats and dogs. Fortunately, none of them paid attention to me, but I did notice some humans that were not wearing a coat looking at me briefly, as if they were surprised. Was vulpix a rare pokemon around where I was?

I abruptly realized what situation I was in and felt unbearably embarrassed. I was sitting on a woman's lap, sniffing at the air and looking at everything around me like any normal fox or dog would do if instructed to stay still. I didn't realize I had done all of that instinctively, and I was ashamed of it. I, a human, was behaving like an animal.

I became ashamed of what I was thinking. I was not human anymore. I was not meant to behave like a human, and what I did was perfectly normal for me now, so why did I get so worked up over it? I would probably be a vulpix for the rest of this life, however long it was, and never recover my human body. There was no point in being ashamed of acting like I was supposed to act. I was a vulpix, and I needed to come to terms with it before I was sent to a house to live my life as a pet.

Thinking about it, I realized I was worried. I had only been transformed for four days, and I felt like I was already not in control of my own body. How long would it take for me to become a vulpix completely and have my very soul turned into a regular fox's? Would that happen at all? Would I remain somewhat human, even after years? How much of my previous life would I be able to remember?

"Hey," nurse Joy said, interrupting my train of thoughts. "Are you falling asleep?"

I turned my head to her and noticed she was smiling peacefully. I felt upset and jealous, knowing that I was going through intense emotional turmoil, being torn apart by conflicting ideas and in a very dire, although not hopeless, situation. I envied her serenity, the stability of her life, and basically everything about her. She hadn't been turned into a pokemon against her will, been catapulted into a world she knew nothing about, been mortally wounded and survived, been the unfortunate witness of another pokemon's death, been almost strangled to death by its trainer, and her life had not been completely devastated for no reason. She was happy, probably doing what she liked most for a living, and was successful at it on top of that. And she was just staring at me, smiling as if she was subconsciously mocking me for letting all of that happen.

Yet, I couldn't be angry at her, no matter how much I tried. I would have loved to find someone to hate or blame for everything that had happened to me so far, but I knew it would be delusional to think such a person existed. I desperately needed someone to vent my feelings on. I wanted to find something to bite, growl at, yelp at, scratch and slap to get rid of this growing need to cry. She wasn't aware of my situation, and she was doing her best to improve it and make my life better. I had no idea how, but I knew she was actually not too relaxed. She was forcing herself to smile to make me feel relaxed. It wasn't working.

I shook my head to answer her question. I wasn't exactly sleepy, considering I spent the vast majority of my time in slumber, but I felt like I was short on energy.

"The gardens are split in two different areas," nurse Joy said, as if to explain to me how it worked to avoid having to just sit in silence. "The one close to the buildings are where we send wounded or sick pokemon that belong to a trainer to play or just rest if their condition allows them to. The part beyond the fence is where we keep wild pokemon. The pokemon centre takes care of them too, just like we take care of you!"

She was smiling at me, but I wasn't paying much attention to her face. I knew I was a wild pokemon, but there was one thing that I overlooked. If there were wild pokemon, then there were trained pokemon, but were they only pets or did they participate in pokemon battles too? Would I get to participate in one? What exactly was going to happen to me after I was taken in as Agnes' pet?

"Wild pokemon come here quite often. They know they can be taken care of if they are sick. We try to keep them separated from trained pokemon to avoid fights. Some wild pokemon are friendlier than others, so they are sometimes allowed in this part of the gardens. Those stay within the pokemon centre and sometimes help, and if they are lucky, someone adopts them."

Adopts? Were there no poke balls to capture pokemon? How did "capturing" a pokemon even happen in this world? Was I wounded when Agnes was trying to capture me, and she was hiding it because she felt responsible? Was that the reason why she was willing to take me as a pet, even though she didn't seem to know me at all? Was she going to take me as a pet had I not been wounded?

"You are a lucky one," nurse Joy said, petting me on the head. "And you are by far the friendliest wild vulpix I've seen."

I yawned. Understanding that I was tired despite pretending the contrary, nurse Joy picked me up and brought me back to my room. After being plugged back to the machines, she put the cage on the bed and left. I didn't get to see Agnes that day, and it made me feel miserable to the point of crying myself to sleep.

The day after was a Friday. I only had two days left to spend in the pokemon centre, if I was released on Sunday as nurse Joy had announced. Although the prospect of being a pet was still quite scary to me, I found myself feeling very impatient. Only a few more days and I would get to spend more time with Agnes. I was hoping she'd come visit me for a longer time over the weekend. I longed to see her and to be with her. She was the only connection I had with this world, and I really needed someone to comfort me.

Nurse Joy came in my room early in the morning. She looked somewhat angry, maybe frustrated. Her smile did not come back when she turned to me, which was unusual. Worried, I poked her with my front right paw to urge her to tell me what was going on.

"You won't like this," she said. "If it makes you feel better, I don't either. The journalists I talked about a few days ago still want to take pictures of you, and now that we know you are out of danger, I can't really stop them. I managed to delay it as much as I could, but I couldn't delay it any further."

Why would journalists be interested in my case? If the humans were not aware I was actually a human, then it had to be because of my wound - the same wound the houndour suffered and died from. Were they interested in me because I survived it? What was so special about that wound?

"I hate journalists," she confessed, removing the cage from the bed and sitting next to me, petting me softly. "They're like... flies. Always floating around when bad things happen, and then they'll suck you dry of any information you may have regardless of your mental or physical state."

She stood up, visibly annoyed at the mere thought of letting journalists enter her pokemon centre, but was still calm and friendly to me.

"We will need to wash you," she said, as if that was a warning that I would not enjoy it. "Then they'll come in this room to snap a few pictures... Hopefully only a few. Stay calm, don't growl at them, don't bite them, don't burn them. Don't do anything without my consent. Okay?"

I nodded. She was probably right. Although I shared her hatred for journalists, I wouldn't have been able to burn them even if I wanted to. How did I use those fire powers I was supposed to have? Was there any difference between real fire and the one I would be using for fighting?

Several nurses came in to help nurse Joy wash me. Unlike what she thought, it wasn't as unpleasant as I expected it to be, but being constantly touched by so many people, sometimes in places I would rather have kept to myself, was extremely annoying and embarrassing. They removed my bandages and covered the wound in some opaque plastic film that was tight and uncomfortable, aimed at stopping water from pouring onto the scar. I stood still while they were cleaning every bit of fur they had access to, then gave me new bandages.

The lack of pokemon disturbed me. I had barely seen any pokemon in my entire stay in this pokemon centre, and the few ones I had seen were other patients. Were pokemon not supposed to help? Where were the chansey? Where were other pokemon either way? Were they not as common as they were in the games and anime? Did this world not revolve entirely around them? Or was it because I was in isolation, and thus had to be left alone as much as possible?

While they were drying my fur, I kept moving to try to see beyond the door, trying to find pokemon to feel less bothered by their noticeable absence. Nurse Joy thought I was worried about the journalists and tried to reassure me:

"They're not here yet. They will come in an hour or two, so you have time to rest more if you want. I can't stay with you, so if you want someone to be with you, just whine!"

Shortly after she left, the sheets on my bed were changed and my water bowl, food dish and litterbox were taken away so I would not dirty myself while waiting. I spent my time trying to guess what was going to happen. I had no idea how interviews worked, but I could only assume they were unpleasant. I didn't like journalists, especially the nosy kind, and I hoped that they wouldn't bother me for too long.

After a few hours, I heard a loud rambling in the corridor. Nurse Joy entered the room, removed my cage from the bed, and was followed in by two people I did not know, carrying a lot of equipment, most of which I did not recognize. I did notice a recorder and a microphone and could only guess they were the journalists nurse Joy reluctantly allowed to see me. The cameraman put a tripod down and attached his recorder to it while the person with the microphone took pillars he started trying to spread around me.

"Hey," nurse Joy stopped him. "What are you doing?"

"Installing lights," the journalist replied, trying to continue his work. "We're going to need lights here and..."

Nurse Joy stepped into him.

"You don't need anything you don't already have. Make this quick."

The journalist gave nurse Joy a murderous look, then dropped his now useless equipment at the back of the room behind the cameraman. He was clearly not happy about being restricted like this, but he had no other choice. Once the camera was in place, the cameraman grabbed a bigger pole with a weird puffy thing attached to it. He set the camera to focus on me.

"We're going to need it to yelp or say something," the journalist said, grabbing a clipboard. "Something that shows it's fine now."

"She," nurse Joy replied, pissed.

"Whatever. Can you get her to say something?"

"Why don't you ask her directly?"

The journalist turned to me. Before he could even open his mouth, I stood on my back legs, grabbed the puffy thing with my teeth and took the foam protection off the microphone. It was very soft and had a weird scent, but I liked its texture very much and put it between my legs, pressing against my belly, hugging it tightly.

Nurse Joy stopped the journalist from stepping forward, probably to try to rip it off from me. The cameraman was more understanding and politely asked if he could have his microphone foam back. It took me a few seconds of staring at him before I realized what I had done. Looking away embarrassed, I released my hold on the foam. After thanking me, the cameraman put it back on its pole and the interview resumed. I categorically refused to emit any sounds for them, keeping my muzzle shut and ignoring nurse Joy's orders. After a few minutes, the journalist gave up on trying to get me to do anything and asked nurse Joy to describe what happened to me.

"I want you to insist on how much of a miracle its survival is," the journalist explained. "We need viewers to be amazed. Just saying she went through surgery and is fine isn't enough. They need to realize she's a survivor. We need details, gruesome details if you can."

Although nurse Joy obviously didn't like the idea, she knew that she wouldn't need to lie at all and accepted.

"Ready... Action!"

"She was brought to us in a very critical condition. Her belly was ripped open. She lost a lot of blood by the time we had her in the emergency room. She was declared dead after a two-hour-long surgery trying to repair the damage and place her bowels correctly. Her heart started beating again shortly after, and we managed to stabilize her. She's now out of danger and waiting to be taken in a new home."

The journalist made her repeat her short speech a few times, trying to insist on a few words and how she should act while talking, but I wasn't listening. Place my bowels correctly? Ripped open? Just what kind of gaping wound did I have? What happened to me? How did I even survive that?

After what felt like an inappropriately long time, the journalist seemed to be satisfied with the interview he took. The cameraman put his recorder on his shoulder and took several short recordings of me, asking me not to pay attention to him. I obeyed calmly, trying to be kind to the human who was kind to me. After he was done shooting, I tried to steal his puffy microphone again, but he saw it coming and withdrew his microphone too fast. Hesitating to pet me or not, he decided not to, and both journalists left.

Nurse Joy turned to, looking visibly angry, and walked to my bed. Thinking she was going to lecture me about my lack of cooperation and trying to steal the foam, I laid on the bed on my belly, laying my ears and lowering my head, raising my eyes to look at her. As she stretched her arm and her hand approached my head, I tensed up and closed my eyes, expecting to be slapped. I was petted instead.

"That journalist one was so annoying! At least the cameraman was nice. I'm glad this is over with, now you should be at peace until we release you."

On that, she left, still mumbling bad things about journalists to herself. I felt very tired and went straight to sleep.

Saturday was uninteresting. To my disappointment, Agnes did not come to visit me at all, and final exams showed that I would indeed be going with her the day after. I felt extremely impatient, and that made the day last unbearably long. Fortunately, it didn't last forever, and it was eventually Sunday.

I woke up very early, being nervous and very impatient. It was much too early for anyone to be awake, and I just waited alone for hours. I wasn't sure whether or not I was right to be impatient. I was finally going to get away from the pokemon centre and be able to move and discover this new body of mine more in-depth, but I had no idea what was going to happen and it scared me. What if Agnes, or her family, were abusive people? I had a hard time thinking they would be, considering how I had been treated up until that point, but I was still quite worried. Hopefully I would have time to learn how to use my powers by myself before she made me participate in battles.

When it was finally time for me to leave, Agnes was the one who came to pick me up. After sitting by my side, smiling widely, she told me to follow her. She explained that, traditionally, pokemon who were going out of the centre in good health were asked to walk by their trainers to the exit as a proof of recovery.

I was struck with a sudden realization: I had no idea how to walk. The mere idea of walking on all fours was extremely embarrassing to me. I had never even stood up since I woke up transformed into a vulpix. I had only ever been sitting or laying. And now, Agnes was asking me to jump onto the floor from the bed, then walk beside her. I was scared.

After a few minutes, nurse Joy gently grabbed me and put me on the floor, then asked me to walk a few steps. Reluctant, I stood up as I could, shaking from the nerves, and took a step forward. Agnes was waiting for me at the door, crouching, her arms stretched towards me. After hesitating for a long time, I decided to try walking. Although my legs felt numb and very weak, walking proved to be easy and intuitive, and I had no trouble walking up to the girl who was now my trainer. As I expected, I felt embarrassed, but unlike what I thought, I couldn't feel the ground under my pads at all. It was very unsettling, as I was used to the very sensitive human soles, but at least I felt less worried about having my "feet" dirty as I used to be as a human. Agnes gently petted my head, and I followed her outside of the room and to the hall.

Nurses and doctors were gathering in it, obviously waiting for me. As Agnes and I stepped into the hall, a loud wave of clapping soared. Agnes was smiling, but I was nervous, and clumsily followed her through the corridor of people. Nurse Joy opened the door for me, and as Agnes went outside, I froze by the doorstep.

That was it. That was the end of my first week as a vulpix and of my stay in the hospital. I had never been outside on the floor before, and had only ever spent a few minutes under the sun. The moment I put a paw outside of the boundaries of the pokemon centre, I would not be by myself anymore, kept in a clean room as a random wild pokemon who had survived a lethal wound. I was going to be a pet.

Agnes stopped a few meters away from me, turning around to wait as I was still unable to make a decision. I glanced behind me, noticing everyone smiling as they were patiently waiting for me to step outside, as if it had a symbolic meaning, as if I was freeing myself of their care by doing so on my own.

"Come on, Vulpix," Agnes said, kneeling and inviting me to go to her. "The family's waiting."

I felt a shiver across my spine, the likes of I had never felt before. Shouting in happiness, I jumped forward and walked as fast as I could towards Agnes, who picked me up and brought me to her car, and into my new life.


	4. Chapter 4

I followed Agnes to her car, walking as I could, feeling weak after spending a week not moving. Although I was walking slowly, she was patient and simply adopted my pace. It felt weird to walk on all fours, but it wasn't as uncomfortable or embarrassing as I imagined. I could feel my tails waggling slowly, which amused me. I was surprised not to feel anything under my paws as I walked on the concrete, and it felt very disturbing. Used to the tactile feedback of my human feet, even through socks and shoes, I felt like I was walking on nothing and I was scared of stepping into something sharp and hurting those little paws of mine.

When we arrived to her car, I was surprised to see how big it felt now that I was a vulpix. It was a very average car one would expect from a student. It had a shiny red colour reflecting the sun almost too much, blinding me when I was looking at it. I was about as big as the wheels, and in spite of my efforts, I failed to see myself in the rim. Disappointed, I didn't notice the plastic cage Agnes pulled out until she opened it and asked me to walk into it.

I was being put in a cage again. No one seemed to trust me, which made sense, but it was very upsetting for me. I was being restricted once more, as I had been my entire first week as a vulpix. Was there no freedom for me? Would I spend the rest of my life in a cage? Was I going to be no more than a fighting dog, risking my life for the entertainment of people who never ever liked me?

I backed off from the cage, refusing to step into it. I didn't want to be a prisoner anymore. If she wasn't going to at least give me some freedom, I would probably be better off running away and trying to live by myself.

"What's wrong?" Agnes asked, kneeling to pet me.

I instinctively stepped back before realizing it was her hand and allowed her to pet me. She tried to softly push me into the cage, but I resisted. She didn't insist and tried to convince me instead of forcing me:

"The cage is here for your safety. Look."

She showed me the inside of the car, drawing a safety belt to support her claims. I turned my head away, pouting to show my discontent, but eventually gave in to her begging and accepted to be in the cage. If it was just a matter of security as she claimed, then it would be a rare occurrence. I could probably live with that, and I had the disturbing feeling I did not actually have a say in the matter. As promised, she drew the security belt over the cage to secure it, installed herself in the driver seat and started the car.

I didn't pay any attention to the trip from the pokemon centre to Agnes' house. I was busy sniffing at the cage. I could recognize at least three different odours, all of which were very similar to mine. Two of them were very faint, while the third one was a bit stronger, but none of them was as strong as Agnes' scent was on her car. Did those odours belong to other vulpix? I had no idea how to tell the different components of each scent apart. All three were similar to mine, two more than the third one. Assuming they did belong to other vulpix that were previous pets, why were they not completely identical to mine, save for the individual odour part that I couldn't identify anyway? Was it the age? In that case, two of the vulpix were about the same age as me, and the other one was either older or younger. Was that right? I had the feeling I was guessing wrong. There were too many things I was smelling, but age would probably have been part of the individual odours. In this case, there was the exact same part as mine for two of them, and the third one differed slightly, but still felt similar.

When the car stopped for a moment, Agnes extended an arm to slip a finger through the plastic cage and try to pet me. As I was making efforts to stick my muzzle on her finger, I smelt on her the same odour I was unable to identify. Puzzled, I took time to think about it.

The answer hit me like a truck. Agnes and I did share that odour, and both of us were female. It was more or less the only thing we had in common. Did that mean those things I was smelling so strongly were pheromones? Did that mean that out of the three vulpix that had been in this cage, two were female, and the other one male? Then, what happened to those vulpix? Why were their odours so faint, feeling like mere remnants of a past memory the cage wanted to keep of them? Were they dead? Did they evolve, and become too big to fit in? Were they simply not using the cage anymore for some reason? If they were dead, then they had been dead for a while already, and that could explain why Agnes decided to adopt me. And if they weren't, then it meant using the cage was indeed a rare thing, and Agnes was not lying when she said it was for my safety. I felt reassured by the idea of finally being given actual freedom to move, but nothing was set in stone yet. I didn't know what I was getting into, and I got more nervous as the car kept on moving.

When the car finally stopped, I thought my heart was going to stop because of how fast it was beating. This was the beginning - second beginning - of my new life. I was now Agnes' pet for sure, which meant I would have to obey her every order, was expected to play whatever games foxes played, and expected to cuddle and act all lovey-dovey with her, which I frankly wasn't too hyped for. I had no idea what kind of family she had, or how she would treat me, and I was silently praying for her family to be kind. Above all, now that I was relatively free to move, I was worried they would figure out I was not actually a vulpix. What worried me most were the three odours I smelt in the cage. If there was at least one of them still alive, would they welcome me? How would they react? Would they notice I wasn't behaving normally?

Agnes opened the door of her car and freed me from the cage. Extremely nervous, I scanned around to try to see in what kind of house she lived.

The only thing I could see was a massive building that looked nothing like a house. It was a manor or a castle or a mansion. It was ridiculously big, but not very tall. I could count three floors, plus one that seemed to be smaller directly from the ground, probably some kind of cave, as it has no visible windows. The building looked like stone, probably very old. The stairs leading to the elevated entrance were beautifully carved and curved, as was the front porch, decorated like a roman temple. The centre of the building was flat, apart from a circular bump in the entrance, but the sides seemed to come towards me. They were clearly not rectangles, and were not round either. They were some sort of polygon, but I wasn't sure how many sides there were. There were two tall windows per discernable side of the mansion and per floor, and the circular part only had one window that was smaller and located higher than the other ones. The roof was blue and of changing heights, decorated scarcely with chimneys that didn't look like they were used at all. I had no idea how big the whole mansion was, but I was sure of one thing: Agnes or at least her family was outrageously rich.

As Agnes walked to the door, carrying me in her arms, I took time to look at the garden. I felt like I was in a park more than someone's garden. It was so big I couldn't even see the fence from where I was. I could see a gravel road leading to the mansion, and a smaller one leading to a side building in which Agnes had parked her car. Trees were regularly planted along the road and provided it with much needed shade. I couldn't see much more as Agnes was stepping in the mansion.

After going through some sort of glass room that was probably the round part of the entrance, she opened the door leading to the main hall. She put me on the floor, gave her coat and bag to a butler who had come to welcome her, and ordered me to sit and stay still. Laughing for myself about how cliché this was, I obeyed, barely taking measure of the size of the hall I found myself in. There was a beautiful chandelier hanging from the ceiling, made in a shiny metal, probably gold. The floor was marble, and pathways were made from soft red carpets. I was disappointed not to see any armour decorating the hallways, but the furniture largely made up for it.

"Find Mother and Father, please," Agnes told the butler she gave her stuff to.

She turned to me, kneeling to pet me, visibly amused by my open muzzle and wide eyes.

"Do you like it?" She asked. "Welcome to the Trokair manor!"

I was amazed by what I saw. The idea of living in such a luxurious house was very exciting. I couldn't wait to explore the whole building and see what was behind each of the windows I saw from the outside.

"Hello Mother, Father!" Agnes said, standing up and greeting the two people who were coming down the stairs.

Her parents were both wearing suits, and were fitting exactly in the rich parents cliché. Her dad was thin and obviously strong, perfectly shaved and with fairly long very dark hair. Her mother was very tall, wearing a pencil skirt, her hair tied in a ponytail behind her head. I didn't focus too much on Agnes' parents, as something else caught my eye instantly. There was a ninetales walking by their side.

She was stunningly beautiful. Her fur was of a marvelous light beige colour and was shining as if she were a model for some brand of shampoo. She had a long mane coming from the top of her head that elegantly fell on the back of her neck and a perfectly combed collar of fur covered her luxurious chest. Her limbs looked thin, which gave her a very noble look, and a very long muzzle, probably longer than mine. She had nine very long tails, spread in a fan and floating freely behind her as she was walking by her master, tipped in an orange fur similar to the colour of my own tails. She looked extremely mature and was walking silently. I knew she had noticed me, or she would at least have been notified I was coming, but she didn't look at me until Agnes' parents and she reached us.

Agnes picked me up, petting me to reassure me after she noticed I was shaking, and made me sit on her arm as if she were carrying a baby. I felt embarrassed by it, but that position was very comfortable, and Agnes' fingers combing the fur on my head was relaxing.

"I assume this is the one?" Her father asked.

"It is," Agnes replied with confidence. "We just came home from the pokemon centre. I have to go back tomorrow to finalize paperwork, but she is more or less officially my pokemon now."

"Still haven't found a name?"

"Not yet, but I'm confident I will have found one by tomorrow."

"Let me see," her father asked, stretching his arms forward to request to hold me.

Scared by the man's impressively big hands, I tucked my head in my shoulders, laying my ears and lowering my muzzle to avoid being touched, but Agnes ignored it and gave me to her father. He carefully picked me up, holding me from under my arms, staring straight into my eyes. I made sure not to move and noticed my tails were covering my body, that was completely still. The man looked at me for a few seconds in that position, then smiled. He put me on his arm like Agnes did just before and started petting me.

Although I was still scared, I turned around to smell his neck, curious to try to learn more about him and assuming that it would be expected of me. His scent was similar to Agnes', and I could differentiate the part I assumed were pheromones on him. It turned out I was right, and I felt proud of it, feeling like I was starting to learn how to properly use my senses. A few seconds of intense sniffing allowed me to also differentiate the part that seemed to be common to humans, but I still had pretty much no idea what else I was actually smelling.

Agnes' mother walked up to me and stretched a hand to pet me as well. I tucked my head in my shoulders again before allowing her to touch me and sniffing the hand that was at my reach. She didn't pet me for too long and stopped, heading back up the stairs stating that this wasn't any of her business. I felt relieved when she left. There was something about her that made me uncomfortable, as her smell felt somewhat foul, at least rather unpleasant. Smelling the man again, I realized his odour was much more enjoyable, almost friendly, and decided I should trust him, as he was probably the head of the house I was going to live in. I sighed and laid my head against his shoulder.

"She is friendly!" the man laughed, taking me off his shoulder and giving me back to Agnes.

"That's... surprising," Agnes said, petting me and holding me tight to reassure me.

Her father didn't seem to understand her reaction, but I was pretty sure I did. After the houndour's trainer had tried to strangle me, it was expected I would be scared of humans, especially men.

"I like her," her father said eventually. "Welcome in, little one."

He turned to his daughter.

"So... Do we have more information on what happened to her?"

I turned my head instantly and focused on the conversation. Was I finally going to know?

"No," Agnes replied, going back to petting me after noticing I seemed interested. "We don't know what or who did this to her. The police didn't even visit. They don't seem to be interested. There were journalists, though, but they are just annoying."

"I will instruct the servants not to let any journalist visit her," Agnes' father said. "She doesn't need to be stressed."

"I hope I won't be questioned at school," Agnes replied. "I know there is an investigation going on, but I'm not sure if she is part of it."

"She probably will," the man replied, sighing. "As far as we know, she is the only survivor. That makes her very special."

Did I survive something? I was the only one who did? What exactly happened? Would I ever get a definite answer? Why was everyone being so cryptic?

Agnes mentioned something or someone did that to me. Did that mean that what happened to me was not an accident? Did someone try to kill me? Was that why I was considered special, why I was visited by journalist and why there was an investigation I might be a part of?

Did that mean that the houndour that died in my room was also a victim of whatever happened to me? Was that why the man was angry at me? Because I survived something his pokemon died of? Because I was the only one to survive it? That still didn't explain what had happened to me. I was pretty sure by then that I was victim of an attack, part of a series of murders the police were investigating. I didn't know the details or what exactly happened to me, but that explained a few things. In that case, why was I attacked? Why was the houndour attacked? Who was responsible for this? Were they responsible for my transformation too?

"Good luck to you," Agnes' father said, petting the top of my muzzle gently. "You will stay in the house until your recovery is complete. Don't overdo it and try to relax. You will need to rest."

He kissed his daughter on the forehead.

"I have more work to do. I'm glad you brought this one home, I think she will be happy here. You've been looking for a pokemon for a while, now you have one!"

He petted the ninetales on the head, then left. His pokemon didn't move, staring at him until he was out of his sight, then turned to Agnes.

"Hey you!" she said, putting me on the floor to kneel so the ninetales could come cuddle with her. "Remember the vulpix I talked about? Here she is! Come on, don't be shy."

That last sentence was for me. I was hiding behind Agnes' leg, scared of the ninetales. She was almost twice as big as me, and looked so much more mature that I felt inappropriate compared to her, but above all, I was scared of interacting with her. I was remembering all the questions I was asking myself. What if I made a mistake and she figured out I was not a vulpix? Should I tell her right away?

"I'll leave you two together," Agnes said. "Show her around and give her instructions, okay? You'll be responsible for her behaviour!"

The ninetales nodded, then Agnes left. The pokemon stared at me as I was curling up, trying to get as small as I could, hoping she would forget about it. She sat down and simply looked at me for several minutes, probably waiting to see how I would react. The more time passed, the smaller I was trying to become, and I would gladly have disappeared right that instant if I could. There was unfortunately nothing I could do to avoid the interaction, and after walking in place for a few seconds, I sat down, trying to control my heart rate.

"Hello!" she said.

Her high-pitched voice was stunningly pretty. She sounded extremely kind, and the way her voice vibrated felt comforting and friendly.

I realized that, although I understood she was greeting me, I could clearly hear "ninetales" and not "hello". This puzzled me immensely. That obviously meant that pokemon could communicate with one another, but was I supposed to reply in plain English? Anything else didn't make much sense to me, and I gave it a try, tensing up, not quite reading to face the consequences if I was wrong:

"Hi," I muttered.

Compared to hers, my voice felt rude and immature. It was lower pitched, and felt much less patient and friendly, but I still thought it was cute, although in a more childish kind of way.

The ninetales seemed to be very excited by my answering. She stood up, walked a few sidesteps, then bent over to sniff at me for a very short moment, laughing silently.

"Welcome!" she said, standing up in her usual noble stance. "My name is Topa. I will be responsible for you until you recover. Agnes did not give you a name yet, so I will just call you Vulpix. Do you mind?"

I wasn't sure if I should answer or not. She scared me. She was clearly an adult, and I felt like a child compared to her. Worse than a child, for I was not even the same species, evolution tree aside. I at least felt a bit better, thinking I had a partial answer to one of my questions. One of the vulpix I smelt in the cage was the ninetales, and she was not using it anymore because she evolved. That gave me hope I wouldn't have to be put in a cage anymore.

"Okay," I whispered as if I hoped she would not hear me.

"You are cute!" she said, sitting down to look less impressive. "You seem to be pretty shy, too. I hope I am not being invasive."

I was surprised by how polite she was. Were pokemon about as intelligent as regular animals, or more? Did they have social norms? Was she just behaving the way she had been taught to behave with humans? I didn't feel like I was interacting with a fox. This very much felt like a conversation with another human being, and it disturbed me immensely. I was barely taking measure of how little I actually knew of this world.

"No, sorry, I... I mean, this is a bit scary, this place is so big, there are so many people, it's too new for me."

"You spent the last week in a pokemon centre, did you not? I suppose you are used to the quiet rooms. Do not worry, neither the maids nor the butlers will bother you. They know you have been injured and have been instructed not to disturb you."

"Okay," I replied, unsure of what to say.

I felt relieved to know my interactions with other humans would be limited for the time being. I didn't feel ready for that yet. I was hoping to observe the way the ninetales behaved and copy it to try to pass as a fox before I had to face the world as one.

"The property is rather big, but you will not be granted access to all of it. Do you want me to show you around? There are also quite a few rules you need to know. I apologize for drowning you in information right as you come in, but it is important."

"No, that's fine," I replied with a bit more confidence.

The idea of walking and talking with the ninetales felt appealing. Being told the rules of the place would at least give me a better idea of the kind of life I was going to live. Agnes' parents seemed to be kind, at least her father, the ninetales seemed to be extremely kind as well, and she was visibly very happy, even excited to have me around. For the first time since I woke up as a vulpix, I felt optimistic. I was certain this place was going to be great.

"Alright. You seem to be tired. Can you walk?"

"Yes," I replied, although I wasn't sure I could. "My belly hurts, but I did nothing for a week, I need to move."

I let her walk a few steps first, carefully analyzing the way she walked, before jumping from my sitting position to follow her and copy her movement as best I could. I was pleased to notice that I was naturally walking properly despite the pain. I felt somewhat excited, almost impatient, at the idea of walking around in the property. It was so big, there had to be numerous things to explore and discover. Above all, despite my early worry, I felt relieved to have a ninetales take care of me. Not only would it make it easier for me to learn how to behave as a fox, but it would also mean I wouldn't have to worry about anything much until I was properly healed.

Starting from the entrance hall, we went to the left into a very large corridor. There were two doors on each side of it, and another one at the end. The first one on our right was open and ninetales lead me into it. It was a big room with the biggest TV screen I had ever seen embedded into a wall on the right, facing several couches and a small table. The room was slightly decorated with multiple pieces of furniture, probably hosting stuff to be used with the screen. There also was a table of reasonable size by the entrance with six chairs spread around it. On the other side, directly facing the table, two magnificent cupboards surrounded a beautifully crafted fireplace. I could only guess that the cupboards had somewhere a wood stash to feed it. The fireplace was surprisingly clean, and completely empty.

"Humans call this the lounge," Ninetales explained. "It is permanently open. Feel free to go around to smell things. We are allowed to come here at any time, but do not touch the furniture and do not step into the fireplace. Also, do not climb on the couches or chairs unless someone invites you to. The table is obviously completely forbidden."

I waited until she finished explaining to start walking around, sniffing at everything I could find. I couldn't smell anything new, which felt very boring. The whole place was disturbingly clean. Going to the couches, I noticed there were three big couches and two smaller ones. One of them was very long and was parallel to the TV, while the two on the side were tilted and much smaller. Between the big couch and the tilted ones were two small round couches, probably meant for ninetales to lay on. The dark blue colour of the couches contrasted with the generally red palette of the walls and floor.

"You can lay on the round couches any time if you want."

I jumped onto one of the small couches. It was very floppy and that felt disturbing. I jumped down, unsatisfied.

"I do not like them either," Ninetales said, amused by my reaction. "The big ones are much more comfortable."

She then lead me to the room facing the lounge.

"This is a gym for the humans," she explained. "The door is generally closed, but if someone is in, you can enter. Just make sure not to disturb them while they are exercising. Do not enter this if no one is inside."

"How do I know if there is someone inside?"

"They will leave the door open. Generally, remember this: do not try to enter closed doors."

That sounded like a simple guideline, but I felt disappointed. There were probably a lot of closed doors, which meant there were a lot of rooms I would not get to explore. If that room was as big as the one we just excited, I couldn't wait to see what kind of equipment was in it.

"Behind this is a huge library," Topa said, pointing to the end of the corridor with her muzzle. "Access to strictly forbidden. Do not enter under any circumstances!"

Obviously. I felt sad not to get to visit it. As a human, I loved reading, and visiting a massive library would have been an awesome experience, but I was not human anymore, and reading would certainly be something I was going to miss.

Ninetales then took me to the door directly to the left of the end of the corridor and asked me to walk in. That room was very weird. The floor and the walls were covered in a somewhat soft mat and the room was completely empty.

"This is the pokemon sports room," she explained proudly. "This is meant for us to play, practice or fight. The mats you see here and on the walls are fireproof, so there is no risk of setting anything on fire."

She looked away as she said that, blushing slightly.

"I look forward to your recovery," she added. "I think this is where we will spend most of our time. At least I hope so!"

I wasn't too sure about that. The idea of fighting, battling, or whatever it was scared me. Would I get wounded? How dangerous were pokemon battles? How did they even happen? I was certainly not ready for it, and I was scared of her finding out. I didn't even know how to use my powers.

The rest of the house was fairly boring. The last room in the left wing was a music room, to which I was not granted access. As I thought, a majority of the rooms were closed. The right wing of the house had a kitchen on one of the sides of the corridor, and a ballroom at the end of it. Unfortunately, the ballroom was closed, and I did not get to see it, although I was extremely curious. Ninetales told me it only opened on rare occasions, and was a massive mostly empty room, which was rather boring. This family didn't seem to be a very festive one, and most of their immense house was left unused.

The second floor had bedrooms. Ninetales didn't even bother showing me anything and took me straight to the right wing, at the end of the corridor. There was no door, but the corridor continued then split into three smaller ones. I counted, in total, 8 rooms, each corridor leading to one of them. Ninetales took me to the end of the corridor straight ahead, then turned around, looking back at the centre of the building.

"The room on the right is the parents' room. The one on the left here is Melissa's".

"Melissa?"

"Oh. She's not here now, she is staying over at a friend's for work. She is Agnes' younger sister."

I didn't dare asking how young she was, but I was hoping she wasn't too young. I didn't want to have to deal with an annoying kid on top of all my problems, especially not before I could pass as a fox.

"If you take the corridor on the left, you'll find Agnes' room. The other rooms except one are guest rooms and are rarely used. No matter what happens, we are not allowed into the bedrooms, even if the doors are open. We can only stay in ours."

Ninetales then took me to the corridor entrance. There was a room on the left that had no door. It was her room. There was a bathroom in it with everything one would expect from a human's bedroom, except the bed was replaced by two thin couches. One of them was yellow and the other one brown. There was a wall separating the bedroom from the bathroom part, and we were generally not allowed to the toilet and shower. There was a litter box next to its door.

"That is for you," Ninetales said. "You will not be allowed in the gardens until you have fully recovered, so this will have to do for now. The yellow pillow is for me, and the brown one for you!"

I felt upset I would have to use a litter box again, but it was inevitable. I had become used to it in the pokemon centre, but the idea of being seen by another pokemon embarrassed me.

"I have never been to the third floor," Ninetales said as she nested on her couch. "I only know it is where the maids and butlers live."

She yawned.

"Did you understand everything? You might be lost for the first few days, but you will find your way pretty easily after that."

"Yes," I replied.

The rules were very similar to the ones my family applied to my dogs. I felt sad to have been restricting them for so long without knowing what exactly it did to them. Although this place was ridiculously big, I felt like I was a prisoner. I wasn't even free to go where I wanted.

"We still have time before dinner," Ninetales said, stretching. "Do you want to do anything?"

"I don't know," I replied, suddenly gloomy. "I should probably rest."

I was faced with a reality I never thought about until then. I had nothing to do. As a human, I would waste my days on my computer or reading, but as a fox, I had access to none of those, and my wound did not allow me to go in the gardens to at least walk or run. There was absolutely nothing to do as I did not see any toys in the room. Even if there were any, would I be using them? I had no idea how foxes played. I had no idea about anything.

I looked at Topa, who was laying down and obviously ready for a nap. She was the answer. I could ask her anything I wanted about foxes, and she could tell me how to act like one. She could be my mentor, but that required telling her I was human, and I didn't know if she would believe me. What would I do if she didn't? What if she did believe me and somehow told Agnes and her family? Would they get rid of me? Would they sell me to scientists? Could I trust her?

What if I did not? I would eventually be confronted to a situation where I would have to use my powers, and it was obvious to me I did not know how to use them. I needed her to teach me, unless I spent my days in the pokemon sports room practising by myself. Even then, the chances she would sneak up on me and find out were too high. I needed to tell her.

I opened my muzzle, trembling heavily, before I noticed she was sleeping. Sighing deeply, I walked to my own pillow and laid down on it. I probably should wait before telling her, as she had known me for a few hours at best, and was probably not ready to hear the truth. I certainly wasn't ready to tell her. Deciding that postponing would be best, I closed my eyes, hoping to rest. I could tell her the following day.


	5. Chapter 5

I woke up silently from my nap, feeling tired but not sleepy anymore. Keeping my eyes closed, I remained immobile for a few minutes, trying to enjoy my rest while I could. I remembered that my stay at the pokemon centre was over, and I had been taken in as a pet in this gigantic manor, but I couldn't remember much of what the ninetales had said. I only remembered that it was similar to the rules my family forced on their dogs and decided to just follow those.

While my eyes were closed, I focused on what my other senses were detecting. I could smell the ninetales close to me, although I couldn't figure out whether she was actually there or it was just her scent on her pillow. I could smell my own scent on my own pillow, and the scent of all the humans that had been in here. I was surprised by how faint the odour of Agnes' parents was, as if they had never come in this room and the only traces of their scent had been carried into it by others. Agnes' odour, on the other hand, was overwhelming. I found it strangely reassuring. Agnes was probably the only person I could trust in this world, and my only actual link to it.

The manor was fairly silent, considering the number of people who lived in it. I could vaguely hear cooks making dinner, Agnes' parents' voices although I could not distinctly understand what they were saying, and other voices I did not recognize, probably belonging to the maids and butlers. I could hear my own heart beating. It was a slow-paced, calm heartbeat, unlike everything I had before this point, when I was constantly under pressure in the pokemon centre. I took a moment to appreciate the calm, realizing that I was actually not nervous and felt at ease, until I realized there was another heart beating in the room, not as fast as mine and not coming from the ninetales' pillow.

I jolted awake, opening my eyes and scanning quickly around me. Agnes was sitting cross-legged on the floor next to me, a book open on her lap. She peeked at me, closed her book and smiled.

"Hey, are you finally awake?"

I answered by yawning, getting up and stretching. My belly felt very stiff and somewhat painful, but I was fairly rested, although not quite awake yet. I staggered towards Agnes, then climbed on her lap as she put her book aside to make room for me. I let myself fall on my side, pushing her chest a bit, willing to continue sleeping.

"You can't go back to sleep now," Agnes said, petting my head. "Dinner is about to be served. Did Topa explain to you how you will be fed?"

I shook my head.

"There are two meals for you: one in the morning and one in the evening. You'll be eating with the family in the living room, the one with the big TV screen. Maids and butlers have their own kitchen and generally eat before we do. You'll have your own dish and your own food. Don't ask to have a taste of what we are eating, my parents will not appreciate that."

I sighed and walked away from Agnes' lap to go back to my pillow, pouting and annoyed. More rules, more restrictions, and again, less freedom for me to do what I wanted. I felt sad upon realizing that I would probably never get to eat proper food and would have to stick with that tasteless pokemon dry food or this disgusting pâté served to animals.

Agnes stood up and grabbed me, carrying me like a baby as she used to. She took me downstairs into the living room and put me down next to the sofas. Agnes' father was watching TV, sitting on the biggest couch while petting Topa who was laying down next to him. He wasn't watching anything that looked very interesting. The screen was full of numbers and graphs, and I assumed it had something to do with a sort of stock exchange. Maids were busy dressing the table for three.

"Hey," Agnes' father said when he noticed her. "Your mother will join us soon, she is in a call for the firm. Melissa is staying over at her friend's for the night."

"Alright," Agnes answered, sitting down next to Topa.

The ninetales woke up, noticed Agnes and turned around, putting her head on Agnes' lap to request to be petted. Feeling jealous, I walked up to the sofa, determined to jump onto it, but I was scared by how high it was and unsure of how high I could jump, and decided against it. I stood in front of it, hesitating, until Agnes' father noticed me.

"Hey little one," he said in a friendly tone. "You can jump on the couch, you know. There's already someone on it!"

He waited for me to do so, apparently thinking I was hesitating because I wasn't sure whether or not I was allowed to. After a few seconds, he gently picked me up and put me on his lap. I didn't dare moving and simply sat there, careful not to look at him in the eyes. I stared at Agnes trying to make her jealous as he was petting me, and was upset to realize she didn't mind. I felt jealous that Ninetales was being petted by Agnes, but decided to brush off that feeling. Thinking about it, I felt embarrassed by my own reaction. I was obviously more attached to Agnes than I thought.

"She doesn't seem to trust me," Agnes' father said, noticing I was still sitting down and not exactly enjoying being petted. "At least she's not scared, so that will come."

"She doesn't exactly look comfortable either," Agnes replied. "Maybe I should take her. Topa, would you mind?"

Topa lifted her eyes, acting like she was disappointed, and turned around again. I was given back to Agnes while Topa put her head on her master's lap. I felt like I had achieved something, making the humans do what I wanted them to do without saying anything. I knew it was stupid of me to feel that way, but I felt proud, and gladly accepted to be put on Agnes' lap.

A maid came by the sofa and waited until Agnes and her father were looking at her to start talking. Once she was sure she had their attention, she announced with a high-pitched and soft voice:

"Excuse me, Sir. Dinner is ready. If you would please come."

"Alright," Agnes' father said, turning the TV off. "Thank you."

The maid bowed and left, walking rapidly as if she were intimidated or scared of doing something wrong by staying there. As everyone was standing up, Topa jumped on the floor and Agnes picked me up. I was mildly annoyed by it, as being carried in someone's arms was not very comfortable. I wanted to be able to walk and jump now that I had relative freedom of movement, but I knew I wasn't allowed to say anything.

Agnes' mother was already at the table. She smiled when she saw us come, but didn't bother petting Topa or me and completely ignored us. Everyone sat down, waiting for the maids to serve food. Agnes had kept me with her and put me on her lap, which was weird.

"I found her a name," Agnes announced, excited.

"Oh, that's good!" her father replied. "What name is it?"

"Well, I was thinking, since Topa got her name from..."

"Your father asked what name it was, not how you came up with it," Agnes' mother said, interrupting her daughter.

She sounded annoyed, almost angry. I couldn't help but be very angry myself at that unsupportive woman. I was starting to understand why her odour was so unpleasant. I was willing to bet she was like the typical stepmother, always insulting everything and completely lacking of any positive feelings.

Agnes sighed. I could smell she was hurt by her mother's attitude and her rude behaviour. She nevertheless decided not to let it show, and abandoned her story simply to answer the question.

"I want to name her Ruby," she said.

I liked that name a lot. It was close to my name as a human, and had a precious feeling to it, which I liked.

"That is a good name," Agnes' mother approved.

She didn't sound genuine. There was something in her tone that sounded extremely rude. She obviously didn't actually care, and only approved of the name to cut the conversation short.

"Indeed," her father added. "Do you have all the paperwork ready? I can drop it to the pokemon centre tomorrow."

"Not yet, I wanted you to hear the name and see what you thought of it."

"That was not needed," Agnes' mother replied crudely.

I could feel Agnes' fist clench up on my head as she was petting me. In an attempt to make her feel better, I rubbed my head on her stomach, laying down and asking to be petted more, but my little play was ineffective. Agnes was firmly grasping the hair on top of my head. She felt like she was about to cry.

"I have to agree with your mother, this time," her father said on a gentle tone, giving his wife murderous eyes. "While we appreciate you wanting our input on it, remember that you took her as your pokemon. You should think of her and of yourself first. As long as you like the name, you should go ahead with it."

"Alright," Agnes said, disappointed. "I'll give you the papers tomorrow before leaving for class."

"Very well. Ah, here."

Maids were bringing the food in. Agnes gently pushed my rear, silently telling me to get on the floor. I jumped and joined Topa, who was waiting for her food, sitting next to two dishes: one brown and one yellow that was slightly bigger. I correctly guessed that the brown one was for me.

The smell of the food Agnes' family got to it made me dizzy. It smelled so good that I had a hard time stopping myself from going there and asking for a piece of it. Instead, one of the maids came up to us and poured a weird mix in our dish. It looked properly disgusting, but had a strangely appealing smell.

"Ninetales, what is this?" I asked before she started eating.

"You are free to call me Topa!" she replied. "This is our meal. It is a mix of eggs, chicken meat, vegetables and a few other things I forgot. It looks weird but it is delicious!"

As if to support her claims, she gulped a mouthful of it. I was reluctant to try.

"Are we going to eat this every day?"

"Every evening indeed. You will have dry food in the morning. Considering you are recovering from an injury, you might be given a chansey egg too!"

"Ew," I silently commented.

I eventually gave in to hunger and ate the disgusting meal as I could. It turned out that Topa was right and it tasted much better than it looked, but I still felt sad I wouldn't get to eat whatever the humans were eating. I kept peeking at the table, hoping Agnes would notice my desperate attempts at getting her attention and would give me something from her plate, but she was eating in silence and never turned around to look at me.

After everyone was done eating, Agnes' mother went back to her room without a word. Agnes finally turned around and was happy to notice my dish was empty.

"Hey, you've eaten everything? Great!" she said, coming up to me and kneeling to pet me. "What about your name? Do you like it?"

I nodded with enthusiasm.

"Alright then. Ruby it is!"

She gave me a kiss on the forehead and went to her room, probably going to bed. I was surprised that she wanted my input on the name, but felt rather happy about it. If I were a regular pet fox, she probably would never have bothered asking me, which meant she considered me to be at least more than a normal fox.

"Great name!" Topa said, walking by me.

Her belly was round, visibly well filled. I looked at my own and noticed the same amusing lump.

"I like it," I replied with less enthusiasm than I showed to Agnes.

I wasn't sure what to say at that point. Topa just smiled and left the room, probably going outside for her business. She didn't talk about my previous name. Did that mean wild pokemon did not give one another names? I felt weird, almost depressed, realizing that I had just been given a new name. It would take some to time to get used to. I felt a bit lost and upset, as if I were missing something about this that was important to me.

"Oh, hey," Agnes' father said to the maid who was cleaning the table. "Rakuen, isn't it?"

"Yes, Sir," the maid replied in a voice I recognized.

It was the same one that came to tell us dinner was ready. She was quite short but had a very generous chest that barely seemed to fit in her black and white french maid uniform. She had semi-short black hair that went down to the middle of her neck. She was standing still, her hands joined in front of her crotch, still holding the tissue she was cleaning the table with. She seemed rather uncomfortable. She looked very young, probably not much older than Agnes. Was she a new maid?

"I reckon you are aware of Ruby's situation?"

"I am, Sir."

"I have had no time to assign someone to her yet. Topa has a designed maid, but Ruby doesn't. Would you mind asking who's willing to do that?"

I wasn't sure what the designed maid was for, but Rakuen's face seemed to illuminate. She felt a lot more confident when she replied, losing part of her expected composure:

"I would very happily do it, Sir. Please allow me!"

"Sure," he replied, seemingly not surprised by his maid's sudden reaction. "I'll leave Ruby to you, then. You are responsible for her!"

"I'll do my best," Rakuen replied, bowing down as her master left the living room.

While she finished cleaning the table, I turned, looking for Topa, but realized that she had left a while ago and I was now alone. Unsure of what to do, I just sat where I was, hoping the ninetales would come back and tell me what I was supposed to be doing in the evening.

Rakuen came back, wiping her hands with some big tissue that she then put inside the apron she was wearing on top of her dress. She paused in front of me, visibly excited, but kept her composure and calmly knelt before me.

"Hello," she said in a soft voice.

I stepped back, unsure of how to handle that person, and retreated under the table where the maid could not reach me. My heart was racing, less from fear than from worry. I was hoping I wouldn't have to deal with humans so early after being taken in, as I still had no idea how I was supposed to behave. It hadn't even been a day since I first stepped into this house, and I was already being put in a risky situation.

"Don't be scared!" she said, stretching an arm forward for me to smell from my shelter. "I'm not going to hurt you! I understand you were wild, but you're safe here."

She had a point. I was indeed supposed to be safe in this house, but I wasn't quite ready to interact with humans yet. Following what I remembered seeing in wild animals, I slowly stepped forward and smelled her hand. Although she did smell friendly and had a pleasant odour, I wasn't sure whether or not to trust her.

She withdrew her hand, visibly sad that I wasn't confident enough to let her touch me. That didn't seem to break her spirits, and she simply stood up and smiled.

"Alright! Let me explain. Since I'm the maid designed to attend you, I'll be the one you should come to if you want or need something. I'll be the one responsible for washing you, grooming, and taking care of you in general. I hope we'll be working together for a while, so let's be friends, ok?"

I couldn't stop thinking that that girl was really cute - and she was probably thinking the same about me as I was hiding under the table, protected by the chairs. I nodded from where I was. Although the idea of having someone I could trust and refer to if I needed something was appealing, I only wanted to limit my interactions with humans, at least until I had a better idea of how to behave like a fox so I would not be suspicious to the humans.

Rakuen muttered something, smiling widely, then left, but I wasn't listening. While there was a good chance I would be able to fool the humans, would I really be able to fool the ninetales? Would it not be better to tell her and hope she would help me directly? Would I be able to learn to use my powers without her guidance? What would happen if I managed to fool her?

I couldn't continue thinking freely, as Topa came back, smelling like grass and water. As I expected, she did go to the gardens, and came back to check up on me.

"What are you doing there?" she asked, amused.

"There was a maid," I poorly explained, unable to exactly tell what was scary about it.

"I am afraid you will have to get used to them. They are all very kind and will not hurt you. As I said before, you will mostly be left alone until you recover. You will have one maid assigned to you to take care of you."

"Yes, I know, Agnes' father just assigned one to me."

"Just refer to him as Sir," Topa replied, walking around the table to find a way to reach me.

I was amused by her calling Agnes' parents Sir and I assumed Madam. It was cute, in a way, for that was how the maids and butlers referred to them and Topa was probably just doing the same. In a sense, that meant that she acknowledged that the humans were her masters. I wasn't too happy about that. As a human, I did want my pets to recognize me as their master and obey me, but now that I was on the other end of the relationship, it didn't feel too good of an idea. I didn't like the feeling of belonging to someone and having to obey unconditionally.

Once I was certain no human would come anymore, I crawled out of my shelter and walked up to Topa.

"You will have to get used to the humans," she said, looking at me like she was scolding me. "No one will hurt you here."

I looked away, unsure of what to say. My previous questions came back to me right away. Should I tell her?

"I'm sorry," I eventually said, laying my ears.

"Ah, do not worry, I think I can understand you would be scared of them. Were you not living in the wild before being wounded?"

"Uh... yeah."

That was my assumption, but I didn't know who exactly I was. Considering that "I" was reported to be moving when Agnes found me and the first thing I remembered from this body was waking up in the pokemon centre, it seemed clear to me that I had taken the body of an already existing vulpix, who probably died in the trade, but I knew nothing of her life before I stole her body. I didn't know how I came to enter it, or what happened to my human one, and it didn't feel like I would ever have answers to those questions. What would I do if she asked more precise questions about my life before the wound that I obviously would not be able to answer?

"You will get used to them," she said, resting her head on top of mine in a gesture I assumed to be a hug. "For now, let us go sleep, shall we? There are a few more explanations to be given."

I sighed and agreed. I wasn't really in the mood for any explanations. I had to make a decision, and quickly.

As we exited the room, I was startled by a new array of scents I had not detected before. I realized soon after that several men in a police-like uniform were wandering the halls. Some of them had a pet growlithe walking proudly by their side. Intimidated by that sudden number of humans and especially other pokemon, I tried to hide under Topa's belly. She sat down, waiting patiently for me to get out of my improvised shelter.

"Do not worry," she said, laughing quietly. "They are the night guards, they will not bother us. Their mission is to look after the house and gardens once everyone sleeps. The Trokair family is the richest family in the entire town and that attracts lots of burglars."

"Burglars?" I replied, unhappy with the idea.

"Yes. Dishonest people who try to break into the house and steal what is in here."

"Huh..." I muttered, very unhappy with the idea. "Is that dangerous?"

"Rarely. The vast majority of people who try it are caught by the guards. If one of them successfully breaks into the house, or if the guards struggle with them, it is then my duty to catch the intruder."

"That sounds dangerous," I whispered, extremely unhappy with the idea. "Are you sure it's not dangerous?"

"It is not," she giggled, obviously confident. "No one has broken into the house so far, at least that I remember. You are safe here."

"Will I be asked to help you with that?" I inquired, pale.

"Not for now, I think, but you will probably be asked to once you are better. If something happens until then, I will ask you to hide and not come out. I do not want you to risk being wounded."

She started walking again, but I wasn't following her. It would probably take a month or so for my wound to heal, which meant I had a month to learn to use my powers and to learn at least basic fighting, and that was assuming I was not asked anything until then. I caught myself thinking that it would have been better for me to be released in the wild, where I could perhaps have learnt on my own, but Topa's gentle and supportive attitude made me realize I was wrong. I eventually agreed to stand up and we walked up to the stairs, which stopped us again.

"Is something the matter?"

I didn't dare answering. The steps of the stairs were about half as tall as me, and I had no idea how to go about them. Topa would probably be able to walk normally, but they were too tall for me.

"Have you never seen stairs before?" Topa asked, obviously surprised.

I sighed, sitting down and not daring looking at her.

"Topa, we... There's something I need to tell you."

She seemed to be caught off by my reaction, not expecting me to be so gloomy and acting so serious all of a sudden.

"Very well," she said, losing her kind tone for a more perplex one. "For the stairs, you can just jump on them. They are large enough for you to land safely."

She patiently walked behind me as I was clumsily jumping from step to step, making sure I was not falling. Once at the top, she lead me to her room. My heart was beating faster as we finished climbing the stairs, entered the hallways, entered the room, then laid on our respective pillow. There was a very tense and awkward silence for a few minutes, only interrupted by my irregular nervous heartbeat.

"Are you alright?" Topa asked, worried.

"Yeah... I just..."

I didn't know where to start. How was I supposed to tell her? What was I supposed to say? Was it even a good idea to say anything?

"There was something you wanted to tell me," she said, trying to push me. "Is it important?"

"Well... yes."

"You should tell me, then. I do not know what makes you so scared, but I will not yell at you or eat you or do anything. You are part of my family now. You can trust me."

This sounded so much like what my parents told me when they thought I kept secrets from them that I started tearing up and silently crying. Topa came up to me and laid down around me, making a bed of her tails that I rested on, then started licking the hair at the top of my head to try to calm me down. Although her motherly attitude was reassuring, I felt uncomfortable with her treating me like a fox kit. I pushed myself away from her, then stood up as she looked at me, puzzled.

"Are you sure you are alright?" she insisted.

Was I?

She didn't insist in trying to calm me down and was simply laying down on my pillow, waiting patiently for me to say what I wanted to say.

I took a deep breath and sat down. It was too late to back away now, and I was probably doing the right thing, but it felt so difficult... I didn't know how she was going to react. I had no clue if she would even believe me.

"I..."

What was I going to say? How would I even bring the subject? It was clear for Topa that I was a vulpix and I was trying to break that. Was it really a good idea to tell her?

"Did you not notice... something strange about me?"

"Not really," she replied, unsure of what I meant. "Did you not say you were wild before being brought in? If you think your behaviour is strange, it might be because of it."

"No... I actually... I don't know if I were wild or not."

"You do not know? That sounds worrisome. Did you forget?"

"No!" I almost shouted, surprising both Topa and myself. "I... I have no idea what happened to me before the pokemon centre. I mean..."

I took a break, gathering my spirits and trying to spit out the words. Topa was staring at me, deeply worried, but did not say anything.

"I'm... I'm not a vulpix," I said. "I'm a human."


	6. Chapter 6

There was a very awkward silence, only disturbed by my very fast heartbeat, calmly echoed by Topa's.

"I... am not sure I understand," she eventually said, puzzled.

"I'm not a vulpix," I repeated. "I'm a human."

"You are a vulpix," she said, sitting up from her laying position, visibly worried. "At least... from what I can tell."

"I'm not a vulpix!" I repeated again, almost shouting. My entire body tensed up, and I closed my eyes. "I'm... I'm a human in a vulpix's body!"

Topa's eyes widened after I said that, her muzzle slightly ajar. She laid down again, not looking at me anymore. Staring at the ground, she crossed her front legs.

I felt like my heart was going to explode. It kept beating faster in spite of my attempts at controlling my breath. I expected to stop breathing at any moment and die from sheer stress. Topa's heart was beating faster as well. She was clearly not expecting this kind of revelation.

I caught myself wanting to snatch my pillow back from under her. I just wanted to go to bed, sleep, and wake up. And when I would wake up, I would be a human again, and none of this would have happened.

Topa rested her head on her crossed legs and sighed deeply. She briefly looked at me. Her wide and slightly shaky eyes made it look like she was scared. I didn't dare moving until she eventually said something.

"Alright," she stated.

She sat up, sighing again. Her eyes and heart were back to normal. She stared at me until I dared staring back.

"I believe you," she said.

Before I could process what she had said, I felt like my heart melted and my whole life crumbled before me. I was about ready to cry. When I realized what she actually said, I was too puzzled to feel anything.

"What?" I coughed. "Is that it?"

"It is very hard for me to believe," she conceded, "but everything tells me you are actually not lying."

"What do you mean?"

"Have you looked at yourself? It looks like you're about to break. Please calm down. Take some time to breathe, lay down, but please be less nervous. Also, we have only met this morning, and you are making yourself this bad to tell me something that is obviously extremely important to you. There is no way you are not telling the truth. It looks to me like you have been debating this for a long time and were scared of my reaction."

I didn't realize my muzzle was open until my tongue started feeling dry. I didn't expect this level of insight from a fox, even a nine-tailed firebreathing one. I felt like I was talking to another human being and it made me extremely uncomfortable. Partially relieved, I managed to calm my heart down a bit, but it was still beating dangerously fast.

Topa stood up, grabbed my pillow with her teeth and dragged it to me, then went to her own pillow and laid on it.

"I believe we have much to talk about," she said, going back to her naturally kind tone. "If you have anything in mind, please tell me. I will do what I can to help you."

I sat on my own pillow, still uncomfortable with the whole situation.

"Well... Yeah, I was scared of your reaction. I thought you would... kick me out or eat me or... something."

"Whether or not you stay is not for me to decide!" she said, disappointed I was still keeping my distance. "As I said before, you are part of the family, and I will support you no matter what."

"What if the humans don't support me? What if they kick me out?"

Topa opened her muzzle to say something, but refrained. She spent a few seconds thinking.

"I would insist to keep you. I cannot just let you go out in the wild, especially not if you are a human. Unfortunately, the decision does not rest with me. Is that what you were worried about? Being kicked out?"

I silently nodded, doing my best to hold my tears back.

"You did assume I would believe you," Topa noticed, to my biggest surprise. "My reaction was not your biggest worry, was it? You are scared of humans finding out."

I nodded again.

"I don't know what they're going to do if they find out," I explained. "Considering... your reaction... I assume humans turning into pokemon is not something that is supposed to happen. So... I'd probably be treated either as some freak, or some lab rat to study. I... I don't want to be treated like that."

"How would you rather be treated?" Topa asked. "As a human or as a vulpix?"

I sighed, digging my head into my paws. I raised one paw in front of me, staring at the pads, then turned it around and stretched my arm forward, spreading the minute fingers as I could, and retracting and opening my claws repeatedly.

"This isn't a hand," I said. "I can't be treated as a human. Not anymore."

"It would be difficult for me not to treat you as a vulpix," Topa admitted. "You want to keep this from the humans and from other pokemon, do you not?"

"Yes," I confirmed. "I hoped you... you'd show me... how to be a fox and..."

I choked. I wouldn't be able to hold my tears back much longer. Topa could feel it, but had the unexpected respect to keep away from me as I myself had put distance between us. She was waiting for me to come to her.

"How to use my powers and all. I'm..."

I wasn't too sure what to say at this point.

"I will," Topa promised. "You have been doing a marvelous job at behaving like a vulpix would. You even fooled me. I do not think much effort will be needed on that, but learning to use your powers will take time."

I nodded. As long as I could make people think I was a normal vulpix, I would probably be safe. For some time...

"I just have one question," Topa said, hesitating. "Do you know... how you turned into a vulpix?"

"No," I replied, shaking my head. "I... The last thing I remember from when I was a human is going to bed. And then... I woke up in this body, in the emergency room in the hosp... pokemon centre. I just..."

My whole body was shaken by a disgusting spasm. It was hard for me to breathe for a few seconds, until my eyes started watering and I couldn't refrain from crying anymore. I laid on my belly, ignoring the pain and numbness, and put my paws on my muzzle, trying to cover my eyes. Topa stood silently, watching me cry, until she decided to walk up to me and nest around me, covering me with her tails.

"I think we should sleep now," she said with a motherly tone. "That is enough for tonight. We can talk anytime you need it. For now, just rest."

She put her head on her front paws again, pushing it against mine in an effort to cuddle. Although it didn't stop me from crying, being close to her that way made me feel better, and I managed to fall into a fragile, tormented slumber.

I woke up early in the morning, but as Topa was still sleeping, I remained immobile for a long time until she woke up. I was trying to process what had happened the day before. It had been a short but very dense day. I felt relieved that I had finally left the pokemon centre, where I felt restricted and constantly watched, but the size of this house made me dizzy. Even when I was human, I would never have dreamt of living in such a palace. Yet, here I was, the little fox I had become, lost in a maze of halls, restricted yet again by a set of rules I had never agreed to follow. And I was a pet.

I felt out of place. I felt so strongly like a parasite that it made me violently distressed. Topa said she believed my story, but I had a hard time believing that. There was no way she did. She was being supportive, which I couldn't complain about, but that was because that was expected of her. I would get to see her true colours a few hours after she woke up. I would know what exactly she was going to do with me.

Topa eventually woke up, slightly before Rakuen stepped quietly in the room and switched the light on.

"Ruby, Topa, it's time for you to eat," she said.

Topa stood up, stretched, then went down the stairs as if she had been awake for several hours although she had only just woken up. I was still very sleepy and my approximate movements made it obvious. Rakuen slowly approached me, thinking I was still afraid of her, and extended an arm to see if I would let her touch me. I clumsily walked towards her hand and put my head in it, looking to be petted. She was the maid assigned to me, which meant I would have to be with her more than anyone else, except perhaps Agnes, so I figured it would be best to let her touch me and learn to trust her. Rakuen's face was instantly lit with a bright smile and she did not refrain from stroking my head and scratching behind my ears. I felt guilty for accepting this kind of display of affection, considering I never wanted to be a fox, but I needed to maintain an impression. Had Topa asked me, I would not have admitted that it felt good and that I ended up asking for more. Feeling that way made me feel guilty, as if I were enjoying this body and these new relationships while not supposed to. Rakuen only pet me for a short time, then lifted me to carry me to the living room, where Topa and I had a small breakfast.

Shortly after we were finished with our meal, I heard two doors open upstairs. Topa rushed to them and I was left alone next to the empty dishes as the maids were preparing the table for breakfast. I realized that the doors I heard were the bedroom doors when Agnes and her parents walked into the room. Sir and Madam were already fully dressed and looked concerned even though their day had not started yet. Agnes was not yet dressed and was wearing some sort of pajamas. Her hair wasn't well combed, but at least didn't look like a mess. Suddenly self-conscious, I tried to turn around to see if my body was a mess too, but my belly protested.

"You shouldn't move like that," Agnes said, kneeling to pet me. "Not until you're fully healed!"

She then greeted her parents, noticing them a bit late although she probably walked with them for a moment, then the maids and butlers as they came by to give her her breakfast. Sir took some time to greet me, but Madam completely ignored me and sat at the table.

"Do you want me to groom you?" Topa asked.

I jolted, not realizing she had come back.

"What?"

"Groom you. Since we are currently in summer, your fur is fairly short, but it still requires grooming or it will tangle and look bad. The maid assigned to you should groom you with a comb after the humans finish their breakfast, I think, but if she does not, can I?"

I remained silent for a few seconds, before denying with an abrupt and involuntarily rude "no". Topa looked a bit upset, but didn't insist. She went to the TV and laid down by one sofa. I left the room, going to the stairs, happy to notice no one was around. I took time to try to hop on the steps as naturally as I could, but I had the feeling my movement was off. Once at the top of the stairs, I realized something: I needed to go back down, but I didn't even dare go down one step. Walking down the stairs while on all four was close to terrorizing. I didn't insist, scared of being seen hesitating to do that, which I assumed would be suspicious, and wandered around the house.

I realized that there was one part of the house Topa had not shown me, apart from the third floor where maids and butlers lived. It was the left wing of the second floor. Scanning around me to make sure I wouldn't be seen, I sneakily walked to that undiscovered area, excited like an explorer setting foot on an new land. It looked very much like the left wing of the first floor, but all doors were closed. The only difference was that the end of the corridor was closed off by a massive, cold metallic door, very different from the beautifully decorated wooden door that closed the access to the library. Intrigued, I slowly walked towards it like a cat sneaks on its prey, crouching as if that made me any less visible. Once near the door, I jumped out of my imaginary shelter, took a few steps forward, and booped the obstacle with my muzzle. I instantly sneezed and walked backwards a few steps. Something was off with this door. Going back to it, I sniffed at it intently.

It had no odour. I was smelling it as hard as I could, but I couldn't smell anything, not even anyone else's scent. The maids were obviously cleaning the door, but there was no trace of it. No human odour, no odour of cleaning products, no odour of Topa. It was completely scentless. Even death had an odour, and this door didn't.

"Ruby?" I heard a voice behind me shout.

I jolted so much, scared out of my spine while focused on this weird door, that I jumped into the air and fell on the ground, before turning around. I could feel my fur standing on its end and my tails spreading behind me as I arched my back in an effort to look more impressive. I quickly calmed down when I realized I was facing Topa.

"Ruby, what are you doing here?"

She sounded... worried. Almost panicked. There was a bit of anger in her voice. She ran to me from the main hall, grabbed me by the back of my neck, and carried me into her room, dropping me onto my pillow.

"What did I do?" I whined, having the strong feeling I was being punished.

"Do not go there!" she replied, almost yelling at me. "That wing is forbidden. There is a reason why I did not show it to you!"

I felt unbearably sad. I was being lectured for being curious. I had no idea that wing was forbidden. How could I have known?

"Topa, what's behind that door?"

"I do not know," she replied more calmly. "Whatever is behind it, access is strictly forbidden to everyone. Not even Sir or Madam go in there."

"It has no smell," I said, whining again.

"I know."

She almost whispered that. It was obviously not normal. I tried to push for information, but Topa ignored me and tried to change the subject.

"Agnes will leave for school very soon. After she has left, we have a lot more talking to do."

"Talking?"

I knew what she was talking about, but I felt like I wanted to hear it from her, or have a confirmation that she did believe me.

"You said you are a human," she whispered, "and that means I have to explain a lot of things to you. Similarly, there are a few questions I want to ask you. However, we need to wait until Agnes and her parents left."

"So you do believe me?"

"Did I not say so already? I do. I have been thinking about this and I agree with you in thinking we need to keep this a secret from humans and other pokemon alike. I apologize for this, but I will treat you as a vulpix, even if you do not want me to."

"I... understand. I think. I mean... I'm a vulpix, right? Even if... I'm not. Er... I'm not making any sense."

I took some time to think about what I was going to say to try to word it as best I could.

"I don't identify as a vulpix," I eventually said, "but I am one. I mean... I can't deny that. So... it's best for me to accept it and live my life as a vulpix."

"Indeed," Topa agreed, visibly glad I was thinking clearly enough to realize that. "I hope you will feel better in the future. As I said before, you are doing a very good job at being a vulpix, and..."

Topa was interrupted by Agnes, who came in the room to say goodbye for the day. While she only petted Topa a bit, she lifted me and hugged me tightly before leaving.

"What was that for?" I asked.

"Pardon?"

"Why did she bother hugging me and not you?"

"She likes you! You are also still recovering, so it cannot hurt you to be shown affection, can it?"

"I... I guess..."

I remained silent for a while. Did Agnes actually like me? How would she react if she knew?

"Alright," Topa said, interrupting my thoughts. "Let us talk. Would you mind coming?"

She stood up, exiting the room and waiting for me to follow her. When we got to the the stairs, I froze.

"I can't go down the stairs," I simply said, embarrassed.

"It is easy!" Topa replied. "You can just walk normally through them."

"It's scary..." I complained.

I put both of my front paws on the step below me, then instantly backed off. My rear was much too high above my head for me to even try. I felt like I was going to roll over and fall.

"I can't," I said, defeated.

Topa grabbed the excess skin on my neck to carry me down. My tails instantly covered my belly. I felt bad, as if I were being punished. She then lead me to the pokemon training room. The door was closed, but there was a cat door on it that allowed us to go in without having to ask someone to open the room for us. As soon as we walked in, the ceiling lights switched on.

"I like this," Topa said. "The lights are switched on as soon as someone walks in, and off when they leave. Is it not funny?"

"Actually... It's dead simple. There's just a motion detector somewhere. If we remain immobile for a while, the lights will turn off."

As I suggested, we waited for a minute or so without moving, and the room became very dark, even for my new eyes. Topa sighed.

"You were right," she said, visibly disappointed.

"I'm sorry," I whispered. "I didn't want to ruin it for you."

"That is fine! If anything, I find this more interesting. How does the motion detector work? How does it tell the lights to switch on?"

"I'm... not sure. That's not something I learnt."

"Oh. Then it still has a bit of magic in it!"

I found it extremely cute, and a bit sad, how Topa considered those to be magic. At the same time, I couldn't help but feel sad. I wouldn't get to learn many new things anymore.

"Alright, I have quite a few explanations to give, now," Topa said, sitting in the centre of the room. "Before I start with how our powers work, do you have any questions?"

I did, but I wasn't sure whether to ask them now or later. I was very excited to learn to use my powers, but I had a chance to ask whatever I wanted now. If I didn't, would I forget?

"Yeah," I decided. "Hum... Pokemon can talk to one another, right? I mean... Even outside of the same species."

"Oh," Topa coughed, as if she had just remembered something important. "Maybe I should talk about pokemon in general first. Well, yes, pokemon have a universal language. Humans cannot understand it, but most pokemon understand human language."

"Are all pokemon... As intelligent as you?"

"What do you mean?"

I hesitated, unsure of how to answer without sounding condescending.

"I'm sorry if I sound arrogant or condescending, but... You understand the concept of politeness. You are able to carry on complex reasonings, form hypothesis, test them, draw conclusions... You sound as intelligent as a human to me. Animals... in my world, animals were nowhere this intellgent."

"Oh. Well, thank you. I do not know if pokemon are more or less intelligent than humans, but the vast majority is capable of everything you listed. The vulpix tree is average, I would say. There are pokemon that are extremely intelligent, and others that are... Like animals in your world, I suppose."

"Are there normal animals here too?"

"Normal? Are pokemon not normal?"

"Well... not for me. I'm sorry."

"I was kidding!" Topa smiled. "Yes, there are animals that are not pokemon, although pokemon are animals too! The ones that are called pokemon are the ones that can use powers. Most look like other animals, actually. You and I both are foxes, for example."

"Can we... talk to them?"

"No, they do not share our language. You could probably communicate to some extent by growling or yelping, but that is all you can do."

I felt disappointed. I would very much have loved to talk to a cat or a fox, but I obviously couldn't.

"What kind of... er... How do animals react to pokemon?"

Topa took some time to think about the answer.

"Animals are much friendlier to pokemon than humans, but... pokemon are still predators to some of them. For example, if you go in the gardens, you are allowed to hunt and kill rabbits, squirrels or birds, and eat them. If you kill a rabbit, bring it to the kitchen, they will be happy to have a fresh rabbit to eat! If it is not edible, they will give it back to you or use it for our dishes."

"Hunting..."

The idea was apalling.

"You do not have to hunt. I am honestly a terrible hunter, so I would have a very hard time teaching you! I used to play with birds and squirrels when I was a vulpix, so I do not know how to hunt them and I would not want to kill any."

"I'm not sure I want to kill anything," I replied, disgusted at the idea of murdering an animal.

"You will probably never have to," Topa said. "I am twelve years old now, and I never killed anything."

"Twelve? Does that mean..."

"I was born the same day as Melissa," Topa replied, thinking that was what I had in mind. "I am actually Melissa's pokemon. Neither Sir nor Madam own one. Agnes used not to, but now... she does!"

"You were born the same day as Melissa? But... How long can... er... ninetales live?"

"Oh, I will outlive Melissa, her children, her children's children, and many more. Ninetales can live outrageously long lives."

"What about... what about me?"

"If you do not evolve, you will live a hundred years or so. You will probably outlast Agnes!"

I felt dizzy. One of my main worries after I turned into a fox was to see my life violently shortened to a dozen years, but I was just learning that it had actually been extended. And if I were to evolve... I'd live even more. If I evolved...

"Are you alright?" Topa asked, noticing I was silent.

"I was thinking," I replied, deciding not to talk about future events for now. "Say, how did you get your name?"

"Topa? Melissa gave me my name... Somewhat. Melissa obviously could not give me a name, so Agnes got to choose it. She was 10 at the time, and obsessed with gem stones. Since my fur was yellow, she decided to call me Topaze. However, the 'ze' sound was too difficult for Melissa to pronounce at the time and she kept saying 'Topa', and that is how it became my name."

I couldn't help but find it all adorable. That also explained why I was called Ruby, as my fur was red - it looked like Agnes did not get over her gemstone obsession.

"Wait, what?" I asked with a sudden realization. "Your fur was yellow?"

"Yes. Vulpixes are born with yellow fur and only one tail. The fur becomes a reddish brown, like yours, as they age. The tail splits and becomes orange, too. For some vulpix, their fur never changes its colours and remains yellow. Only the tail takes a small orange tint. Those are called 'shiny' by humans, but it is just a colour alteration."

So that was what shiny pokemon were - at least shiny vulpix.

"What about ninetales?"

"Pardon?"

"What colour is a shiny ninetales?"

"Their fur is grey with a blue tint. The tip of their tails is blue, too."

Topa extended one of her tails to me to compare its colour to the colour of mine.

"See, our tails are the same colour. When a shiny vulpix evolves, its fur changes colours completely."

"Are there other colours? Is yellow the only possible alteration?"

"Well, I have heard of black or white vulpix, but I have never seen them. I assume they are rare."

"Albinism and melanism," I said, mostly to myself.

"Pardon?"

"That's what it's called when an animal's fur is white or black. Albinism is white, melanism is black. It's a rare genetic mutation."

"Genetic?"

"Huh... I don't want to explain."

"Oh."

Topa sounded disappointed not to get an explanation, but fascinated at the same time.

"What I mean is..." I started, unsure of what to say. "Foxes... I mean, normal foxes, they have a lot of different colours, cats too, so I thought vulpix would be the same."

"Not that I know of!" Topa replied with enthusiasm. "The only colour changes I know are black, white, and shiny. The colours for a shiny pokemon change with its species, as you probably guessed."

"I... already knew that."

"You knew?"

"You probably won't believe me, but... There is a series of pokemon games in my world. And so far... Everything has been very accurate. There's ninetales, vulpix, I've seen a houndour, growlithe, nurse Joy... I'm starting to think I'm actually in the pokemon world from the games."

Topa remained silent for a while. The lights switched off at some point, and she stood up and stretched to switch them back on.

"That is quite crazy," she said. "It actually is good for us. It means that you probably know a lot more than I thought! I feel like it will be easier for you to get used to this world with that. Is that not a good thing?"

"I don't know," I admitted. "I can't just assume everything is the same."

"You have a point," Topa conceded. "Alright, then. How about I explain to you how your powers work? You will need them, and I think you have been waiting for this for a long while."


	7. Chapter 7

Topa was right, I had been waiting for this. It was one of my first thoughts after I realized I was a vulpix, but I would probably not go as far as calling it "a long while". The idea I would turn into a vulpix never crossed my mind. I had been a pokemon for only a week, and although I was very eager to learn how to breathe fire, I was also scared of it.

"You have two different kinds of powers," Topa started explaining. "The first is the one I will teach you first: breathing fire. Be cautious in your use of this power, for you will be breathing actual fire and could easily set the house ablaze should you breathe a flame in the wrong place."

She read my mind. So I was able to use actual fire? That sounded extremely dangerous - and excitingly powerful.

"So... I could kill someone?" I asked, disgusted by the idea.

"Very easily! You are obviously not allowed to, and I doubt you will reach any situation where you might in your future job."

"My future job? What? I thought I was just a pet. What's that job you're talking about?"

"You did not know?" Topa asked, genuinely surprised. "I imagined it would be one of the first things Agnes told you when you were released from the pokemon centre."

"She didn't tell me anything. I don't know what I'm doing here, why I was adopted by this family, why I was wounded, or..."

I couldn't explain the sudden contraction that shut my throat down and prevented from finishing my sentence. It felt like my tongue collapsed into my throat. I was trembling, and my vision was blurred.

"How you became a vulpix," Topa finished, cuddling with me to try to console me.

She waited until I felt better to continue.

"Well, I suppose I will start with that, then. Agnes is currently in training to be part of the police."

I sat down. Was that why she rescued me? I was going to be... just a police dog?

"Are you alright?" Topa asked, worried.

"I'm fine," I said, standing up.

I didn't want to think about it. I had to wait how it was, then see how much I liked the idea. I didn't have a choice anyway.

"So I assume you learnt the laws from Agnes?"

"Correct. The laws are rather complex and I did not understand all of them, but a short summary is you are not allowed to kill under any circumstances."

"That sounds logical, at least," I replied.

"However, there are regulations regarding injuring someone," she added. "If you are attacked, you are allowed to defend yourself. If you injure the human that attacked you, you will not be punished, as long as the injury is not permanent. If you are attacked by another pokemon..."

She paused for a second.

"You can fight to the death. Pokemon injuring or killing other pokemon or animals is not punished. If the pokemon belonged to a trainer, the police will investigate and punish the trainer responsible for the event."

"So... pokemon lives are less important than human lives?" I asked.

"It seems so. If one day I decide go to the forest behind the manor and kill every animal I find, no one will do anything to stop me."

"That's..."

I couldn't finish my sentence. I was already aware that most humans considered animals to be inferior and that animal life had less value than human life, but now that I was on the inferior end of the spectrum, it sounded extremely wrong to me. I sat down, staring at my front paws again. I felt desperate, as if my situation had just become unbearably worse. The humans here considered me inferior to them, and yet, I myself was a human. A human!

"Hey," Topa said, poking me with her muzzle. "You look upset. Did I say something wrong?"

"No," I replied, trying to explain. "It's just that... as a human, I considered animals to be less intelligent than me, but I never considered them inferior to me... Whatever that means. But now... now I'm not a human... and I'm inferior."

"You are inferior to no one," Topa replied calmly. "That is what some humans think. It does not mean it is true. We are all the same here in this world. What a group of creatures think cannot change that."

I was surprised by her reasoning and unexpectedly deep thinking. Once again, I felt like I was talking to another human, and it made me uncomfortable.

"So... What are the punishments for breaking the laws?"

Topa remained silent for a few minutes, trying to remember.

"If you injure a human and you were not being attacked, you will be taken to a special place with cages. There are cages for humans too."

"A prison," I replied. "That's called a prison."

"A prison," Topa repeated. "Yes. You are locked up for months, or years, and in general there will be someone in charge of getting you back on track. You are supposed to obey your human blindly."

"So if Agnes orders me to injure someone, I get punished ? That doesn't sound fair."

"Why not?" Topa asked, surprised. "Agnes only gave the order. You followed it. At the end of the day, you are the one who injured the person, not Agnes."

I couldn't agree with her reasoning, but it was valid.

"And... if I kill a human?"

"You die," Topa replied instantly. "You will be taken away by the police and killed. You can also be killed if you yourself kill another pokemon that did not attack you."

So that was it. My life now was... inferior. On top of that, if I did what was expected of me as a pet, I could possibly die although I did nothing wrong. That wasn't the kind of life I expected as a pet - especially not as a pet.

"I don't want to be a pet," I pouted.

"You have no choice in the matter," Topa replied, coming to me to hug me. "You are Agnes' pet. She is a good person, so you will not kill or injure anyone. Besides, you are still recovering from an injury yourself. Even if something happened, Agnes would protect you. And so would I."

"Isn't my role as a pet to protect her? Not the other way around?"

"You protect and look after each other," Topa replied. "There is much more to being a pet than obeying orders and cuddling when asked to."

I remained silent, thinking about my own relations to my pets. I felt like I had been doing it wrong all this time. I considered my pets less intelligent, and I only expected them to obey me. I never considered the pet-master relationship as anything but a superior-inferior kind of relationship.

Understanding that I was going into negative thoughts again, Topa poked me with a smile.

"Enough explaining for today, is it not? How about learning to breathe fire? That was originally what we came here for!"

I wasn't too excited about it anymore. The idea of being considered inferior by the person who saved my life and probably the person I would grow to love most was depressing. Topa was visibly doing her best to lift my mood, but I ignored her encouragements.

"Ruby," she eventually said, sitting down very seriously in front of me. "What are you thinking about? You look very sad."

I was unsure whether to tell her or not, but realizing she would be my only confidant, I decided to be honest:

"It's just that... When I was human, I had pets and... I considered them inferior to me. I didn't even think love was possible between a human and a pet, at least not the kind of love you have towards your family. And now... now I'm on the other end of the relationship and I am inferior."

I felt ashamed of saying it and admitting that I was just another arrogant human. For a second, I thought the reason why I became a vulpix was to teach me a lesson about human-animal relationships, but I quickly got rid of that stupid idea.

"You are not inferior," Topa repeated. "Humans may think you are, like you seem to have been considering your pets inferior, but you are not. We are all the same here. A person and an animal or a pokemon can develop bonds as strong as any."

"I never considered my pets to be part of my family... I saw them as friends." I choked, "Just friends. I'm... I'm ashamed. And sad. Maybe I hurt them by not giving them enough love and I never realized... and now I'm the pet and..."

I didn't know what else to say. I felt terribly ashamed of myself.

"If Agnes treated you the way you treated your pets, would you be happy?"

"Definitely," I answered instantly.

"Then you have nothing to worry about! You are a good pokemon. Well... You were a good person. Hopefully that does not change!"

"I don't know," I replied, gloomy. "Can we even compare my human behaviour to... to now?"

"Would making such comparison bring you anything positive?"

"I don't think so," I answered, thinking for a moment.

"Then let us not do it. Come on, stand up. This is crucial for you to learn. You are expected to know how to breathe fire, and you being unable to would be suspicious. They might blame the wound, but it is best to make sure that does not happen"

She was right. I stood up, doing my best not to let my feelings get the better of me. This was extremely important, and although I had lost the energy and excitement, I was still very eager to learn.

"I am not sure how to explain," Topa admitted after several minutes of silence. "Young vulpix learn this very fast, with or without their parents. I never thought I would have to explain how to breathe fire one day."

"Sorry," I said, blushing and turning my head away.

"What are you apologizing for? You did not do anything wrong."

"I don't know, I just..." I hesitated. "I feel like a burden to you now. If at least I was a real vulpix..."

"You are a real vulpix," Topa insisted. "Look at your paws, your tail, your fur. You are a vulpix and you have this power inside of you. You only need to learn how to use it."

"My mind is not the mind of a vulpix... I'm a human."

"Then let the vulpix part of you teach the human part of you."

That sounded extremely weird, but it got me thinking. Was there a vulpix part of me at all? Was the vulpix whose body I stole somewhere in my brain with me? Would I be able to call her for help or information?

Aware of how ridiculous I probably looked, I sat down, muzzle towards the floor, and tried to imagine what a vulpix looked like in this world. I couldn't use the mirror above the sink because it was too high for me to reach. After a few minutes of intense thinking, I gave up and decided to wait until I found a mirror.

"Let us begin, shall we?" Topa asked as I stood up.

"Okay."

"You are new to this body, so you might not know much about it. Focus on your chest. Do you feel it?"

I closed my eyes, trying to focus on what was on my chest. I realized after a few seconds that it felt very warm and crackling like a campfire.

"I can," I said, opening my eyes again.

"This is where your fire comes from," Topa explained. "Humans think that there is a flame burning in our body, and that it disappears when we die, but they are wrong. This is simply the source of your powers. Together with your winter coat, it enables you to still feel comfortable even in extremely cold temperatures. When winter comes, Agnes will want you to stay with her as much as possible, because you have this warmth she can use to keep herself in a comfortable temperature range."

I remained silent a few more seconds, enjoying the warmth coming from my chest. I couldn't locate exactly where it came from - it felt like it was somewhere in my ribcage, roughly located around the heart, but I could feel its effect to the tip of my paws and tails. It felt like a ball of fire was protecting my heart in particular.

"This is... strangely comforting," I said, enjoying the feeling and wondering how I had not felt it before.

"It is! The warmer it is, the better you are. Humans call it the inner flame. When you are sick, its power diminishes and you are more vulnerable. Naturally, when a vulpix dies, their inner flame dies with them."

"So... that's it? That's where my powers come from?"

"Your real flames, yes."

"Real? You mean there are flames that aren't?"

"Oh. I am sorry, I forgot to explain that. Yes, you have two kinds of powers. The real ones, like our fire, are actual fire, or whatever element they are. You can set something ablaze with it. Light the chimney. And... kill someone."

"They are real flames? Then... pokemon fights..."

"Those are your second kind of power," she continued. "Those are... not real. They do not set things on fire. You cannot drink that water. They are special."

"Not real? How can something not be real?"

"Those powers only interact with creatures," Topa said. "So... if I use them on you, you will feel pain, but I could try my hardest to set a leaf on fire with it, I would fail."

"So they just... cause pain, right? They are the ones used for battles?"

"Most of the time, yes. Of course, sometimes, two pokemon end up fighting to kill each other. And then... They use their real powers."

That sounded extremely scary. I wasn't sure I wanted to try a pokemon battle at all anymore.

"Humans have called those 'unpowers' and have classified them in a certain number of different types. For example, for us, we can use unfire. There are eighteen different types. Unnormal, unfire, unwater, unelectric, ungrass, unice, unfighting, unpoison, unground, unflying, unpsychic, unbug, unrock, unghost, undragon, undark, unsteel and unfairy."

This gave me at least a bit of information - it meant that whatever world I lived in was probably at least past the pokemon X and pokemon Y games, due to the presence of the fairy type.

"How do I use those?" I asked.

"It is difficult to learn. Unlike your inner fire, you have nothing to directly feel them. Human research on the subject is not very advanced. They have detected that we use different kinds of energy and have named them as I listed before. They also discovered that a pokemon's body is surrounded by up to two of those energies. This lead to attributing a type to each pokemon, depending on what energies their aura is made of. You and I are pure unfire type."

"So... that means there is a matchup chart, right?"

"Correct!" Topa replied, excited that I was actively learning. "All pokemon know it, and humans seem to have figured it out too."

"So... what happens during a fight?"

"With unpowers, the fight lasts until someone's aura is depleted. In general, having your aura depleted is very painful and leads to fainting."

I shivered. I wasn't quite ready for pain - especially not if I could avoid it. Pokemon battles sounded worse as I learnt more about them.

"Older pokemon, or pokemon with more experience in battle, have thicker auras and can withstand more moves. When you are hit with a move, it destroys part of your aura and that is what causes pain."

"Aura?"

"Yes. The aura is the energy, or energies, that surround your body. You produce it constantly but not consciously. It is that aura that you use for moves. As you said, there is a matchup chart, which means some unpowers are either effective or not effective against others. Some are even completely useless against specific ones. For example, as an unfire type, you will be vulnerable against unwater moves, and your own moves will be particularly effective against ungrass type pokemon."

"How do I recover it?"

"Your body regenerates it over time. If you are not using it, the excess aura simply dissipates and is useless."

It made little sense to me that something like that was possible. I spent several minutes debating to myself whether or not it was true. Then again... I myself had turned into a vulpix and teleported to a world visibly different from mine. Why would there not be other forms of magic?

"It's weird," I eventually said.

"It is how it is," Topa replied, smiling. "You can feel those energies around yourself, but also around other pokemon if you are close enough."

Topa walked up to me and laid down by my tails.

"Close your eyes and try to feel the energy I emit."

I obeyed, but after several minutes of focus, I had to admit:

"I can't."

"You are a vulpix. Of course you can. You simply do not know that yet."

I tried a few more minutes, focusing with all my might on Topa. Unfortunately, I could smell her odour and hear her heart beating, but that was all I could do.

"I can't..." I whined, sitting down in disappointment.

"Alright," Topa said, standing up. I have an idea. Do you allow me to attack you?"

"Pardon? What... What are you going to do?"

"I am going to throw an Ember at you. Being hit by it should help you identify what it is."

"Ember? That's just a fireball, right?"

"Indeed!"

"It will hurt, right?"

"It will be somewhat painful, but you being a Fire type, you will not be affected as much as other pokemon. Fire against fire is not very effective. I am not sure why humans talk about fighting fire with fire. It is clearly not a good idea."

I chuckled, amused by her reaction to the phrase.

"It's just a phrase," I explained. "It's used when you use your opponent's strategy against them. It's not literal."

"Oh," she said, surprised. "I never thought of that. Are there many of these phrases?"

"Quite a lot," I replied, trying to think of more. "It's not important."

"Very well. I will show you real fire and unfire first."

After finishing her sentence, she breathed out a little flame. I could feel its warmth and see its light. The flame was short and rotating like a whirlpool. Right next to Topa's muzzle, the fire was of a blinding white colour. As it continued its journey to nowhere, it turned yellow, then orange, then red, and eventually disappeared into thin air. It looked a lot like a flamethrower, and it was sent by Topa.

"That was real fire," I said.

"Yes. You will learn this first. I hope it will not be too hard for you, but you will have to learn to control your powers. Remember what I said earlier."

I was impressed, and excited again by the idea of breathing fire.

"Now, this is unfire. A simple fireball that you spit at your opponent. Humans refer to this as Ember."

She waited a second, then spat a fireball that travelled straight ahead, before hitting a wall and vanishing instantly. The fire looked real, but was emitting no light and no warmth. There was something weird about this ball that I couldn't understand. It was a strange feeling in my guts, or in my brain, as if I was suddenly reminded of something I used to love doing.

"Can you do that again?" I asked.

She threw another Ember at the wall. This time, the fireball was bigger than the previous one, but travelled at the same surprisingly high speed. It gave me the same weird feeling that I couldn't describe. I could feel, in my chest, the warm sensation Topa explained me about before changing. It felt slightly different, somewhat... excited. I myself felt like I had a lot more energy, and I felt extremely impatient and surprisingly confident.

"I feel weird," I told Topa, hoping she could help.

"That is normal. Can you feel your inner flame changing? That is due to the energy I spent to throw these Ember. You detected the energy and you are now getting ready to fight. Of course, we will not fight, but your body is preparing for it."

This felt extremely weird. I felt like I had no control over my body, and I was merely doing what it told me to do.

"Now..." Topa walked back a few steps.

She threw an Ember at me. I was hit before I realized the Ember was thrown at me. I instantly felt an entirely new kind of pain. It was like the pain was located outside of my body, covering it whole. Although the fireball hit me in the muzzle, every little bit of my body seemed to hurt, from the tip of my tails to the top of my snout. It was a very harsh and violently sudden pain, that disappeared less than a second after appearing. After it was gone, nothing had changed for me. My fur was not burnt, there was absolutely no pain anymore, and I was still standing where I was, tense and shocked.

My inner flame seemed to be more excited than ever. Although being hit by the Ember was painful, it felt very exciting, as if my body was demanding more. My inner flame was going completely crazy, expanding to reach the back of my throat. After a few seconds, it returned to its normal size. I was extremely excited and full of energy.

"Can you feel it, now?" Topa asked.

"I'm not sure. I can... feel something. Something's changed about my inner fire. It became big, really big. And... different. It's not like a flame. There's something more."

"Exactly. And this something more that you feel is the equivalent of your inner flame for your unpowers."

"I feel... good," I admitted. "Excited. Full of energy. I would run around for hours if my belly didn't hurt."

"That is your body getting ready for a fight and asking for more," Topa said. "We pokemon enjoy those fights a lot, although it leads to a lot of pain, it is probably the most fun we have."

That at least explained why pokemon fought one another that way.

"What about the trainer, then?" I asked.

"I will answer that later," Topa smiled. "For now, learn to control your inner flame."

She came to sit next to me.

"Do you remember how you felt like your inner flame was growing?" she asked.

"Yes."

"Try to reproduce that. Make your inner flame grow."

It took me several minutes of intense focus. I tried remembering the feeling it gave, but I couldn't duplicate it exactly. Thinking of real fire, I eventually could feel my inner flame grow.

"I think I did it," I said.

Talking made my inner flame return to its normal size, which disappointed me. I would have all that effort to do again...

"Perfect," Topa said, satisfied. "Now, you have to detach part of it and send it into your muzzle. Think of it like... rewinding time when you swallow something."

"So it's like vomiting?" I asked, slightly disgusted.

"Technically, yes, but it does not feel like it at all. Throwing a flame is pleasant. You will probably find yourself doing it without realizing it."

I closed my eyes, focusing on my inner flame. I managed to make it grow again. When it reached my throat, I did my best to remember how I felt when vomiting. Although nothing happened at first, I realized that the inside of my mouth was getting very warm. Blowing air from my muzzle as if I were whistling as a human, I was astonished to see a very small flame escape my muzzle and travel a few centimeters forward, before evaporating.

"Congratulations, Ruby!" Topa said, excited. "You just learnt how to breathe fire!"


	8. Chapter 8

The idea that I had just breathed fire sounded impossible to me. I remained immobile a few seconds, astonished. I still remembered the little flame that travelled a bit away from me before disappearing. I had trouble imagining that it was mine - and even more so admitting it.

"Is something the matter?" Topa asked, slightly worried to see me petrified by what had just happened.

"Was that really mine?" I asked, turning only my head to look at her.

"Well, of course!"

"No way," I whispered, more for myself than for her.

"Just try again," Topa proposed, smiling.

I shook my head, hoping that it would relieve me of this eerie supernatural feeling I had. I focused once again on that warm part my belly, my inner flame, radiating its comfortable warmth through my entire body. I tried to measure how big it was, but it was impossible for me to tell exactly where it ended. I could vaguely feel it near my heart, but it was as if it did not end and actually filled my entire body.

"I can feel the inner flame," I said, "but... I can't locate it. I don't know where it is."

"That is because it is not real fire. It is in you and that is all that matters. Come on, try again."

I focused on the inner flame again. I imagined that a part of it got separated from the rest somewhere in my throat. Soon after, my muzzle started feeling hot, and I released the same small flame that vanished quickly.

"See?" Ninetales said, smiling. "This is your doing. You can breathe fire, now. You will need to practice to be able to do it at will instantaneously, but I trust you can do it."

I remained immobile and speechless for at least a whole minute. When I regained control of my body, I breathed another transcient flame, and repeatedly did so while running and jumping around Topa, extremely excited and proud of myself.

"That's incredible!" I said, before unleashing another of my little flames. "This is me? I can do that? I can't believe I can do that. This is real fire?"

I continued jumping around Topa for a few more minutes. She was sitting in the middle of the room and seemed to be amused by my reaction. After I was done orbiting the ninetales, I sat in front of her, still excited.

"Remember that this is real fire," she said. "It is dangerous, so be careful. You can do what you want in this room, but no firebreathing outside of it unless ordered to."

That made sense, of course. I had the ability to breathe fire. That made me abusively dangerous, although I was just a small fox. I could set things on fire, of course that would be restricted by humans.

"Wait a minute," I said, suddenly realizing something. "Isn't this dangerous for me too? What if I breathe fire on my leg?"

"Your fur is fireproof," Topa answered. "Your whole body is, pretty much. Real fire can hardly harm you if you are a bit careful."

I threw another of my small fireballs right to my front right paw. I could feel the heat, but it lead to no pain, as if I were just moving my hand close to a campfire to feel its warmth, but not close enough to cause a burn. I amused myself by shooting fire at my legs, enjoying the warmth and the very idea that I was breathing fire.

"This is awesome," I said, still excited. "I'm breathing fire!"

"You are," Topa agreed, smiling. "However, the fire you are breathing is weak. Have you seen the size of your fireballs? Such small ones are hardly dangerous at all!"

I felt a bit upset that she was cutting through my enthusiasm, but I understood how she felt. I had to learn how to breathe fire like a normal vulpix in a very short time, and we couldn't afford to waste some over my achievements.

"What do I do wrong?" I asked.

"Well... It takes you a bit of time to create the fire, but that is normal. Humans cannot breathe fire. Can they?"

"Well, no... Even in my world, there's no such thing as breathing fire."

"Your world?"

"Yes, I... I don't know how it happened, but... This isn 't the world I lived in before... before this. There are no pokemon and..."

I paused, unsure of what Topa's reaction would be.

"That is a problem," she said after a few seconds of hesitation. "How different is this world compared to yours?"

"It's more or less the same, from what I've seen. Everything is identical, except... I'm a vulpix girl in a pokemon world, and there are no pokemon in my world."

"Do you think we can assume that, apart from pokemon, your previous world is the same as this one?"

"I assume so, yes."

"Alright."

Topa stood up, stretched, then started walking around the room, as if she was thinking. I was sitting in the middle of one of the mats, close to the centre of the room, still amusing myself with my little fireballs. The orange light they created gave the fur on my front leg beautiful highlights. Upon closer inspection, I realized that fur was very dry and partly discoloured, as if I had been sick or malnourished for a long time.

"Topa, what is wrong with my fur?" I asked.

"Your fur? Nothing is wrong with it."

"But, look..." I said, walking up to her and stretching my front right leg right by her muzzle for her to see.

"Nothing is wrong with it, but you look heavily malnourished. You will have good food and get better in no time here. You will be surprised by how your fur looks like then!"

I hoped so. I didn't like the feeling of looking malnourished, when I had a very pleasant life as a human, without the struggle of finding food.

"For your fire," Topa said, cutting my thinking short, "you will find it easier to breathe it with your muzzle open. Try this."

Topa came to my side so that we were facing the same direction. She threw a small flame like my fireballs - that felt a lot hotter and more powerful than mine - and held it for a few seconds, her muzzle closed.

"This is what you are doing," she explained. "It works well to set wood on fire in winter, but it could be much more powerful."

She threw another flame, opening her muzzle wide. The fire that came out of it was mind-blowing. It was a perfect continuous stream of deadly plasma. I could feel the intense heat from where I was. Unlike the smaller flames, this torrent of death didn't vanish until it hit the mats on the wall and disappeared, scattered in a circle around the impact point. I couldn't refrain from commenting:

"Wow..."

"Impressed?" Topa asked with a concealed smile. "Try it. You do the same thing, but open your muzzle more."

I tried. My first few attempts were almost pathetic, as I could only breathe a small flame despite opening my jaw as much as I could. I eventually figured out that I needed to create more fire, and focused on that, before opening my muzzle wide and throwing a larger flame.

"You are learning fast," Topa said, visibly impressed. "This is good. You are still not used to it, but if you practice enough, you will be able to breathe fire the moment you want it. You will have to learn to control the flame, but I believe you..."

She was interrupted by the door opening.

"Hey Topa, Ruby," Agnes said, stepping in and leaving the door open.

Topa joyfully ran to her and requested to be petted - wish granted instantly by Agnes. I was a bit more reluctant to move. I felt embarrassed by Topa's purely animal reaction, like a pet celebrates its owner in the morning. Although I was expected to behave that way, I didn't see myself jumping around, excited, trying to lick Agnes' hand as she tried to catch the running fox, and requesting to be petted on the head. That was how animals behaved, but I was no animal. I was a human.

"Ruby?" Agnes asked, crouching after Topa calmed down and sat next to her. "Come to me."

I obeyed, almost against my will and slowly walked up to her. She carefully grabbed me and hugged me, putting the top half of my body on her shoulder. If I were a human, I would have blushed at that exact moment. I sighed and put my head on Agnes' shoulder in a shy attempt to cuddle.

"I will come back this evening," Agnes said, putting me back on the floor. "You stay with Topa, alright?"

I nodded. Agnes petted me again, kissed my forehead, and left the room. After she shut the door, I walked a few steps towards it, then remained immobile for several minutes.

"Are you alright?" Topa asked, walking up to me.

I didn't answer, focused on that closed door separating Agnes from me after we cuddled. Topa sat by my side, waiting patiently for me to reply. The lights turned themselves off, burying the room in a dirty shroud of darkness. There was no light at all, for the door was airtight to ensure no fire would spread from the pokemon training room into other rooms. After several minutes of silence, I tried to stare at my paws. Although I could only see some spectral shadow, I knew where they were there and could imagine their fugitive shape through the darkness. I could feel my tails coming out of my body. They were down, resting on the floor, as were my ears. The room was dark and silent, apart from the heartbeats I could hear. They resonated in a strange way against the mats of the room. The resonating heartbeats were strangely low-pitched and reverberating, so much so that I began feeling scared of this closed room. I was yet sitting still, in absolute silence, staring at my paws through this artificial night.

There was a noise outside of the room that jolted me back to reality, making me switch the lights back on. I instantly rushed at the door, my tails wagging impatiently.

"Agnes?" I called.

The noises continued for a minute or so, before going away and disappearing. I sighed, disappointed.

"Agnes left for college," Topa said, patting the top of my head.

"I know," I replied, pushing Topa's paw away.

"It seems you like Agnes a lot", Topa noticed, smiling.

Did I?

"She saved my life," I answered, looking away in embarrassment. "It's normal that I'm attached to her."

This sounded more like a pathetic excuse than a real reason. What was wrong with me, playing hard to get and refusing to admit that I actually loved Agnes with all my soul?

I felt weird. Did I love Agnes? Most certainly. However... It wasn't the kind of love I was used to. It wasn't a human-to-human or human-to-pet kind of love. It was different. Was the fact she saved my life the only reason why I loved her? I had a debt to her, no doubt, but debts don't generate love. Yet, here I was, stalking a door, hoping that my human would come back and stay with me instead of leaving me alone in the dark room for the whole day. It wasn't exactly the love one has towards members of their family. It was... less rational. I had known Agnes for barely a week, maybe slightly more, and yet I was already fully in love with her. It wasn't a sexual kind of attraction either. I felt like Agnes was the most important thing in my life. Could it be...

"You love Agnes, do you not?" Topa asked, poking me with her muzzle.

I didn't dare answer. I was still avoiding Topa's eyes, embarrassed.

"You should not be embarrassed," Topa said. "It is normal for a pet to love their human. If you are lucky, you can even call your master by their name, and not just master!"

"Can I call Agnes Agnes?" I asked, noticing Topa called her "master".

"Absolutely! I was raised to call the humans master, but you are still very young, so I do not think they would mind."

"Young? I was over twenty years old when I was human..."

"Twenty? Oh my."

"Topa, how old am I?"

"Did you not say you were twenty?"

"When I was human, yes. But now I'm... I'm a vulpix, right? This isn't my body. So... how old am I? How old is this body?"

Topa hesitated to answer. After I poked her several times, she finally gave in.

"You are young. Very young. Still a child. I would say... Two to three years old."

I wasn't sure how to react. So I was a kid? Nothing more than a baby? Was that the reason why I loved Agnes so much? Did I see her as some motherly figure?

"Is that why I love Agnes so much?"

"It is possible," Topa answered after a short silence. "You may have the body of a vulpix, your mind is still human. When I heard you were going to be adopted, I was excited to have a kit to take care of, but you did not behave like a kit would. Then you explained to me that you are human..."

"So?"

"I think that you see Agnes as a motherly figure. You are a human, right? You cannot possibly see a ninetales such as me as your mother. You barely identify as a vulpix if at all. However, you are a kid, and your young body affects the way you think. You may still be human, but you are no longer an adult. So... I assume you chose Agnes as the motherly figure over me, since... You are human."

I remained silent, conscious that this unconscious decision was actually upsetting her.

"If you are right, then you will eventually become my motherly figure," I said, trying to cheer her up.

"Why so?"

"I... I've been a vulpix for what? Ten days? Nine? Either way, I remember when I first woke up, I wasn't ready to be a fox at all... And now I'm accepting my fate as a pet and already behaving a lot more foxy than I thought I even could. This body is taking a toll on me. I genuinely think that I'm turning into a fox at mind. I... I won't be a human for long. And then... Well, it will be like you are..."

I choked on my own tears. Why was I about to cry now? Nothing was wrong. I was just talking, and yet, I felt unbearably sad. I was thinking about my family, my pets and my friends. I would probably never get to see them again. I didn't know what happened to my human body. Was I dead? Unconscious? In a coma? What were my friends and family doing? To me, they simply disappeared as I was turned into a vulpix and thrown into a different world, but what about the me that didn't leave my original realm?

Thinking back about my family was too much for me and I started crying. This switched the lights back on, and Topa came to me and hugged me.

"I miss them, Topa," I whined. "I miss my parents and my pets and my friends. I want to see them. They are my true family. I don't have a family here."

"If you want," Topa whispered in my ear, covering me with her tails, "I can be your family."

That only made me cry louder, and I pushed my body against Topa's, cuddling as much as I could as she made a bed out of her tails for me. I nested on it, putting my head on one of Topa's paws, and fell into a fragile slumber.

I was woken up a few hours later by heard a strange clicking sound and a flash of light I noticed through my closed eyelids, which woke me up. Still very sleepy, I had trouble opening my eyes, but recognized Agnes' scent instantly. Raising my head, I saw her at the door with a camera in her hands.

"Hey Ruby, did I wake you up?" Agnes smiled.

I yawned for an answer.

"Ah, sorry. I wanted to take a picture of you two, you are adorable."

Topa was still sleeping, it seemed. Our position from when I fell asleep had not changed, and I was comfortably tucked under Topa's tails. I struggled to get out of the improvised bed as quietly as I could to avoid waking the ninetales up. As I stumbled up to Agnes' feet, she crouched to pick me up and pet me.

"Come with me," she said, carrying me in her arms. "Melissa came back from school and wants to see you."

I could only assume that Melissa was her little sister, who spent the entire weekend at a friend's place. If she was back from school, that meant that it was late in the afternoon and we would soon have dinner. I could smell the food being cooked and started thinking about Rakuen, wondering if she would be given kitchen work today as well.

Agnes walked up the stairs to the bedrooms. She took me to the end of the corridor, turning right, and knocked at the door. Melissa's bedroom was facing the parents', while Agnes' was facing Topa's.

The door opened and a young girl appeared at the doorstep. I couldn't peek inside the room, as the door was barely opened, but the girl noticed me instantly and shouted:

"Ah, so cute!"

She then threw her arm forward to try to touch me. Scared of this loud person, I dodged the attack and tried to climb onto Agnes' shoulders to hide behind her head. Unfortunately, Agnes' grasp on me was too strong and I stayed in her arms, bent backwards to keep as far as I could from her little sister.

"Eh? Why is she scared?" Melissa asked, obviously disappointed I refused to be touched.

"You are too brutal!" Agnes replied, trying to hide her laughter. "Remember she's still mostly wild, so you can't come forward yelling like this!"

Agnes was obviously amused by the situation. Melissa pouted, unhappy from having been called loud.

"Her name is Ruby," Agnes continued. "Come on Ruby, don't be scared. This is Melissa, my little sister. She's very kind but a bit impatient."

"I'm not impatient!" Melissa shouted, disagreeing with all her might.

I could see in her eyes she was dying to pet me, but I wasn't exactly looking forward to it. She seemed to be rather clumsy.

"Come on, Ruby," Agnes repeated with insistance. "Say hello."

It wasn't a gentle push, this time. There was no kindness in her words. It felt like a direct order to let Melissa touch me. Upset that she would disregard my feelings and order me to do something I didn't want to do, I whined, but Agnes didn't change her mind, and I eventually threw a shy "hello" to Melissa. Of course, all she heard was "vulpix", but that seemed to be enough for her. She jumped where she was with excitement.

"Hello!" she answered. "Can I pet you?"

I looked at Agnes from the corner of my eyes. She still looked kind, but was staring at me to make me understand she was watching me. I had no choice but to obey, and I slowly nodded to allow Melissa to pet me. She was so impatient that she was shaking, and I could see the moment when her overhyped arm met my terrified head a bit too fast, knocking me out on the spot. As she started stretching her arm, I tensed up, closing my eyes, ready to pass out from the innocent brutality of the young girl.

There was no such encounter, and I felt a timid hand slowly touching my head. Finger by finger, as if she were scouting my head before petting me, Melissa put her hand on my fur, under the little ball of orange fluff that covered the top of my skull. Seeing no reaction from me, she took her fingers back for a short second, then put all her hand on my head. After regaining confidence, she started stroking the back of my head, between my ears. She stroked several spots on my head, trying to find the ones I liked. I slowly calmed down, enjoying the careful petting.

There was something different in the way Melissa was petting me compared to how Agnes or her father did before. Although she seemed to be generally more careful, the petting felt... better. After only a few seconds of being petted, I found myself closing my eyes, enjoying the feeling, and pushing my head against Melissa's hand in an effort to show her I was enjoying the moment. She smiled and continued petting me, rubbing my ears and stroking the top of my head.

"So cute!" she said, happy that I let her touch me.

"She is still recovering," Agnes said while putting me back on the floor. "Be careful with her, especially her belly."

"What happened?" Melissa asked.

Agnes turned her eyes away, unwilling to answer the question. Melissa seemed to be upset not to get a response, but displayed her usual smile again when I walked up to her and poked her with my muzzle, asking for more ear rubbing. She crouched and obliged, happy that I accepted her and let her touch me.

As expected, we were soon called for dinner, and I felt a bit disappointed not to see Rakuen serving us. Topa explained to me that the maid taking care of dinner was the one attached to her. She was obviously older and more experienced than Rakuen, who felt like she was new to her job, and the little time I spent with her made me dislike her. Topa found it amusing, for she got along well with her maid, saying she was less grumpy than she looked. After dinner, everyone went in their own room, and Topa and I simply followed. We had spent enough time in the pokemon training room for now, and I needed to rest on what I had learnt.


	9. Chapter 9

The day after, Melissa brought Topa to her classes, leaving me alone in the gigantic house. I didn't want to be alone and decided to roam the second floor looking for some human to notice my presence, carefully avoiding the left wing as Topa told me to. I was still thinking about what I said to her the day before. I missed my family a lot, and I had the sad feeling that I would never get to see them anymore and would live the rest of my life as a vulpix. I felt miserable, wandering aimlessly in the vast corridors, walking slowly, ears and tails down. Agnes was kind enough to carry me downstairs from my room, thinking I wasn't able to take the stairs because of my wound, and I was stuck on the first floor.

At least I didn't have nothing to do. Hoping the day would feel shorter, I went into the pokemon training room to practice firebreathing. It took me some time to remember how I did it, but once I successfully threw a small flame before me, I had no trouble repeating the action. I kept breathing small flames, my muzzle almost closed, as it felt easier for me - not much harder than just blowing a candle. However, my flames were weak and vanished quickly. Remembering what Topa said, I tried opening my muzzle, but all I could do was cough without producing any fire. The more I tried, the harder I coughed.

"Ruby?" a voice asked through the door.

I jolted, turning around. The door soon opened, revealing Rakuen wearing her usual maid outfit. She had a broom in her hand and was obviously busy cleaning the floor.

"I heard coughing. Are you alright?"

She started a movement to come to me, but refrained and didn't move from the door. I felt a bit relieved that she remembered that I wasn't comfortable around her, but at the same time, I felt guilty for not letting her touch me. Imagining myself in her position, I would probably have been very upset if a vulpix didn't let me touch it, especially if it was to be the new family pet. In spite of that, I decided to stay where I was.

"Well, now that I'm here, can I come and sweep the mats?" Rakuen asked with a shy tone.

I nodded and threw a joyful "sure". Although I wasn't too happy having her around breaking into my practising, I had no right to stop her from doing her job.

She entered the room with her broom, walking against the wall to show that she did not mean to disrupt me, and started brooming the room, starting from the back wall and progressively going back to the entrance. I stayed in the middle, staring at her while she was working. She didn't seem to mind it and was whistling quietly to amuse herself. As she reached me, I didn't move until she poked me with her broom. I jumped out of the way, which seemed to amuse her, and she resumed her work. The stick she was holding and moving felt strangely attractive, and I ended up following it slowly, crawling as a predator crawls upon its prey, waiting for its chance. The moment the broom stopped, I jumped in the air and landed front paws first on it, then tried to dig around it, biting the broom sometimes to try to get hold of it. Rakuen patiently waited until I gave up to continue, but had to deal with me attempting to steal the broom from her. She evaded my attacks skillfully, gracefully dancing, her long skirt flying around her legs in a charming movement. After a few minutes, I realized that I was actually having fun, and abandoned all my carefulness and reluctance to pour myself fully into the improvised game. Unfortunately, the game eventually came to an end as Rakuen reached the door. She picked up the mix of ashes and fur that she gathered and threw it in a big black plastic bag, then turned back to me. Smiling happily, she bent forward and gave me the broomstick, but as she was stretching a hand forward to pet me, I grabbed my trophy and ran back to the centre of the room, watching her carefully as she left, disappointed but smiling, and closed the door behind her. I let go of the stick, laid besides it, and started chewing on it. I was the victor for the day.

When Topa came back in the evening, she immediately came in the pokemon sports room, only to find me asleep by the broom I had victoriously stolen. She softly woke me up, saying she was back and asking how my day had been.

"Pretty long," I said, yawning and sitting down. "I practised firebreathing most of it, but that wasn't very fun."

"Where did you get this?" Topa asked, staring at the broom.

"I took it from the maid," I said, inflating my chest proudly. "The one assigned to me... Rakuen."

"Did you steal it?"

"I won it!" I replied.

"Won?"

"I..."

Only then did it strike me. I felt extremely embarrassed by the game I had played with the maid almost without realizing it. There was nothing human in that - nothing at all. I had completely given in to my instincts and the playful, fully animal fox that was now a part of me had easily overcome the careful, fully human part. Thinking back about it, I did remember having a lot of fun, and that memory made me ashamed of how I behaved. Topa, however, seemed not to see it the same way.

"You played with the maid, did you not?"

I turned my head away, heavily embarrassed.

"That is fantastic!" Topa said, obviously excited.

"Huh?"

"I remember you expressing doubts about accepting yourself as a vulpix, but it looks to me like you are not having as many problems as you thought. This is great news! If you can naturally act like a vulpix would, you will not have to worry about anyone finding out!"

I blushed, although it was hard to spot on my orange fur. I wasn't happy with this new development. I didn't want to be a fox, and I apparently was already fully indulging in fox-like behaviours.

"I don't want to be a fox," I said after a few minutes of silence.

Topa's face turned from joyful to puzzled then to sad from puzzled in less than a second.

"I am not sure what to say," she admitted. "I can see that being a vulpix does not make you happy, but..."

"It can't be helped, I know," I finished, sighing.

There was another pause.

"Why did it happen to me?" I complained.

"Pardon?"

"Why did I turn into a vulpix? Why me? What did I do to deserve this?"

I was about ready to cry. There was another long silence. Topa was staring into the void, seeming deep in her thoughts. Wondering what she was thinking about, I remained immobile until she eventually looked at me. She looked a bit angry, at least annoyed.

"Why do you think of it as a punishment?" Topa asked.

"Huh?"

"The way you complain sounds like you consider turning into a vulpix to be a punishment," she explained.

"I..."

I couldn't disagree with it, but I felt ashamed of feeling that way. As a human, I was probably convinced that animals were indeed inferior, although I claimed not to think it, and now that I was an animal, I realized how stupid the idea was.

"I won't ever see my family again, or my friends or my pets. I can't do what I liked to do anymore. Everything I had is... it's gone. I..."

"This is not about what you have lost," Topa interrupted me.

She sounded rather angry. Intimidated, I flattened my ears and laid on the floor, not quite ready to be lectured, but certainly about to be.

"It might take time for you to accept it, but you have a family here," Topa said. "You will have new hobbies and new things you like, but you have yet to discover them. How long have you been a vulpix for?"

"Nine days," I answered, whispering.

"You will recover those things. There is something about being a fox that you do not like. As if it were... A punishment."

I stayed silent, trying to find the words to explain myself. Although Topa seemed angry, there was something in her eyes that looked sad. I wasn't sure if she herself was sad or if she was sad for me. Were pokemon capable of empathy?

"Can I be honest?" I asked.

"Please be. Thinking of your transformation as a punishment is hurting you. You need to part from that."

"Well... Humans think animals are inferior," I said bluntly.

"You told me," Topa said. "Is that why you think of... all this as a bad thing?"

"I guess? I'm not sure, it's... I feel so embarrassed by everything I do. When I played with Rakuen... I didn't realize I was being... a normal vulpix, I guess? It didn't feel special to me. I... I even had fun. Now that I think back about it, it's... it's degrading."

"Degrading," Topa repeated.

There was another silence. For my relief, Topa didn't seem angry anymore, but looked sad.

"You keep thinking of yourself as a human," she said. "You should not. You no longer are human, you are a vulpix and what you did is perfectly normal. If anything, you should be proud to have been able to act naturally. You are adapting to your new body and that means a lot."

"I never wanted this body. I don't want to adapt to it."

"You are thinking of this as a punishment again. Why not think of it as a reward?"

"How can it be a reward? I... It basically started my life all over."

"Should you not be thankful for that? Is that not something you have wished before? Everyone wishes they could start over, and you get a chance to. How can you not think of this as something incredible?"

I was astonished. How did she...

"How do you even know that?" I asked. "That's... that's psychology. That's even close to philosophy."

"Well, there are a few things about humans that I understand, and one of them is that they always seem to create purely imaginary problems for themselves. Melissa once told me she wishes she could start over and be born in a family that isn't this rich because she feels like no one likes her because she has money and they are all jealous of it. I have seen her interact with other humans and it does not seem to me like anyone hates her. She has a lot of friends and I could tell that they like her. I do not understand why she thinks otherwise, but she does and it hurts her. You are doing the same thing. Instead of looking at facts, you are imagining that turning into a vulpix is something that happened because of something you did and take it as a punishment. Even then, you could also take it as a reward but chose to take it as a punishment because you consider animals to be inferior, and turning into one is, as you said, degrading, and probably because it fits whatever negative image of yourself you currently have."

That was rather impressive. I didn't expect a simple fox to think this deeply and understand at least parts of how the human mind worked. Once again, I felt like I was facing another human, but for the first time since I had met her, I had the disturbing feeling she was more intelligent than me.

Topa understood that she hit the nail on the head and smiled. She petted me.

"Let us try to think of it as something positive, okay? You get a chance to restart your life, so if there is anything you have done before that you wish you had not, you have a chance not repeat the mistake! You even have a chance to live a whole life while retaining the experiences of a past one!"

"I never wanted to restart my life," I said, pouting. "I was pretty happy with what I had."

"Have you ever made mistakes you wish you could repair?"

"Well, yeah, but..."

"You get a chance not to repeat them, then! Why are you looking at everything so negatively? You need to smile more. Come on, smile, smile, smile!"

She bent playfully, her tails happy wagging in a hypnotizing movement behind her, but I was not willing to play. She quickly understood that and simply laid down, disappointed.

"You need to smile more," she said. "You are too depressed. Again, stop thinking of your transformation as a punishment. You are living something no one has ever lived before you, in both of our worlds - you turned into an animal. This is a unique experience."

"I never asked for it."

"Things happen without anyone asking for them. This is how the world works. Stop worrying about the whys. No one can answer the questions you asked earlier, so why ask them? Simply live your life and do not ask questions that admit no answer, or you will be miserable pursuing things that do not exist. Worry about things that can be solved, like tonight's dinner!"

I couldn't help but smile. I was fairly hungry, and Topa's endless optimism was taking a toll of my depressed mood.

"Okay," I conceded, standing up. "I'll try."

The day after was a Wednesday, if my count was not wrong. This time, Topa was left at home with me, and we spent the day in the practice room again. Topa seemed to be very happy with my progress, although I hadn't practised much, but kept saying I needed to open my muzzle wider.

"You are swallowing most of your flames", she explained. "You need to be able to breathe fire with your muzzle open if you want to be able to learn Ember."

"It's too hard," I complained.

"That is why you have to practise!"

I sulked. I was aware of it, but all I wanted was to be able to breathe fire properly and not have to go through the hours of coughing I was likely to need. I wanted to be able to use my powers there and then and not have to wait, but unfortunately for me, I was going to have to.

"If it is any motivation, I will teach you Ember once you can breathe fire properly," Topa said, poking me with her muzzle to get me back to practising.

Compared to breathing fire, using a pokemon power seemed like nothing. I was however still looking forward to pokemon battles, as much as they scared me.

"Wait," I said, realizing something. "For battles, are we using real powers? Isn't that dangerous? Do pokemon..."

"Of course not!" Topa replied. "Do you remember what I explained? You have two kinds of powers. Fire and unfire. The auras. Remember?"

As hard as I tried, I couldn't remember what all that was about. After admitting it to Topa, she seemed a bit disappointed, but promised to explain it to me again. I was suddenly interested - very interested - in what exactly those powers were and how they worked, but I needed to breathe fire properly first.

"So... What do I need to do to learn Ember?"

"First, learn to breathe fire with your muzzle open. That way, you will be able to reach the full power of your fire - it will be useful for future moves and might serve you in a real fight."

"Real fight? I thought pokemon only thought with the moves."

"Well, generally, yes, but... Real fights happen as well. Sometimes, pokemon fight with the will to kill their opponent, and then it is not a sport anymore..."

"All is well in love and war, heh?"

"Pardon?"

"It's a proverb. Or... a saying. I'm not sure what the difference is. It basically means that for love and war you can do anything to achieve victory and are not bound by the rules of fair play."

"Well... Let us hope you never get in such a fight, alright?"

"Yeah."

I spent the rest of the day practising firebreathing under Topa's careful eye. She sometimes stopped me to give me advice on what to do or what I was doing wrong, and by the end of my training session, I was able to breathe more powerful fire, but the ninetales didn't seem to be satisfied yet. Too tired, I gave up for the day, and Topa agreed that it was time to rest. Dinner was about to be served, so I went back to the lounge to wait there. Rakuen was in there, together with an old man I didn't recognize. He smelt of importance and authority and instantly scared me. Judging by his uniform, he was one of the butlers, and judging by Rakuen's red face and repeated apologizing, I could only assume the man was her superior, probably the chief of all the maids and butlers, and she was being lectured. When she was certain the man left, she sighed, visibly disappointed.

"Hey Ruby," she said.

She crouched, waiting to see if I would come to her or not. Disappointed I wouldn't, she stood back up.

"I forgot to come pick up the broom you took. I got lectured because of it..."

She looked immensely sad, as if being lectured was the worst thing to ever happen to her. In an effort to comfort her, I ran to the practice room and brought the broom back. After putting it on the floor in front of me, I pushed it with my muzzle towards her, and she picked it up without trying to touch me.

"You chewed on it," she said as if to lecture me, although she sounded more amused than angry. "I hope I won't get in trouble for that too."

I laid my ears, conscious that she had got in trouble because of me and feeling partly responsible. In an effort to show her my sympathy, I slowly crawled towards her. She stretched a hand. I took time to sniff it again, trying to get used to her odour to be able to recognize it. She still smelled nice, and had a weirdly friendly and somewhat naive odour. Maybe I could trust her?

"Ruby?" a voice asked.

Startled, I jumped in place, then ran back under the table, protected from this new intruder. I quicky recognized the new odour, however, and happily ran to Agnes as she stepped into the room.

"Hello," she said, petting me as I was pushing my head against her knees to ask to be petted. "Hello Rakuen!"

"Hello Agnes," she replied, standing up then bowing down.

I could feel in the way she answered that she was sad that Agnes interrupted our bonding moment.

"I'm sorry," Agnes said. "I interrupted you... Looks like Ruby's willing to trust you, though, right?"

This sounded less than a question and more than an order to me. Unhappy, my tails stopped waggling and spread out horizontally behind me as I laid my ears and stepped back a few steps. After a few moments of hesitation, I looked at Agnes who was staring at me. She looked somewhat angry, at least very stern, as if to silently order me to trust the maid. I stepped a few more steps back, looked at the maid who was silently standing up not far from me, obviously unhappy with how things had turned out. I could feel my tails touching the floor and my ears laid back, and after a few seconds of hesitation, I tensed up, shouted "sorry", and ran away from the room.

"I'm not sure she's ready to let you touch her yet," I heard Agnes say as I was going to the practice room to hide.

Agnes didn't seem to be angry at me for disobeying when she came to tell me dinner was served. I expected to be punished, but she just petted me and repeated that I could trust the maids. She obviously didn't want to force me to interact with them, but did want me to at least let them touch me. It would obviously be needed for them to wash or groom me. There was something about Rakuen's odour that I liked, although I wasn't capable of explaining why. Unlike the other maids I came across, she was friendly and seemed to actually care about me. Maybe I should actually give her a chance...

"You definitely should," Topa said when I consulted her about the matter. "She does seem to like you a lot. I do not understand why you insist on staying away from everyone."

"They scare me," I replied. "I'm not ready to interact with humans. I don't want them to find out."

"I think we have already discussed that," Topa replied, referring to our earlier conversation. "The odds they find out are very low, especially considering you are already naturally behaving normally for a vulpix."

"I know..." I sighed.

I was a bit tired of Topa repeating that. Although she was probably right, I wasn't sure I actually wanted to behave like an animal. Thinking about what I saw my cats and dogs do made me embarrassed. I knew I was no longer human and I was unhappy with it. Yet... There was something about being a little fox that was enjoyable. Although I was still wounded, I unexplainably loved the feeling of having tails. On top of that, I wasn't just a fox - I was a pokemon and there was still much for me to discover and learn about. I was most looking forward to battles, and I was fairly angry at Topa despite understanding her careful attitude. I could feel that there was a part of me that was much more impatient and careless than I normally would be, and I was scared it would eventually take over and I'd become... just a fox.

"You focus too much on the negative," Topa said once we were on our respective beds. "You are always thinking that you do not want to be a vulpix, or that humans might find out your secret, but that just brings you down."

"You're repeating yourself," I replied, rather annoyed. "You're always saying I should be happy to be a vulpix and all, but you don't understand my situation."

"I probably never will, but I want to help you, and seeing you depressed all the time is not something I enjoy. I do not know what it would take to make you happy, but I want to try, and the way I see it, I need to make you comfortable with your current life. You cannot hate your life and be happy."

"I don't hate my life, I'm just... All this is beyond me. I'm... I turned into a vulpix and I have no idea how, why or even when. I just... went to bed, and poof! I'm a vulpix. Hell, I was even dead when I woke up. I'm just... Out of control. It's depressing. When I was human, I had some power over my life. I could make choices, but now... I can't even choose what I'm going to eat. It's like the most basic freedom has been taken from me."

Topa remained silent for several minutes. After a long wait, she eventually said:

"I think you are wrong."

"Huh?"

"Rather... I think you are lying to yourself. Freedom... That is a purely human concept. No one is ever really free. We are all bound by obligations. When you were human, you had to go to school, had laws to obey... Even your own conscience took away your so-called freedom. I have heard about freedom of speech and similar human ideals, but they are... delusions. Your own body restricts your freedom to what it is capable of doing. Your own mind limits your freedom to what it can think. Why are humans trying to live by ideals that lie to them? Animals are a lot happier than humans because they do not bother with all those problems. Pets or not, dogs and cats are happy. As long as they have food and a safe place to sleep, they are happy. What more do you need in life but food and shelter?"

"So... You consider humans are not animals?"

"Well... I am not sure how they define the word 'animal', but in essence, indeed. They parted from us a long time ago when they decided to create all those problems for themselves. You are an animal now, try thinking like one? You have food, you have a shelter, you even have a family to love you and play with you. That is more than most animals have, and yet, you are not happy. Why?"

I blushed and looked away. Once again, I had the disturbing feeling that Topa was actually more intelligent than me. She seemed to have much deeper thinking about things I never even thought about. To every question I had she could give an elaborated answer, and to every answer I have she could raise questions. I felt powerfully outsmarted and that made me extremely uneasy.

"Do pokemon often think about those things?" I asked.

"Pardon?"

"You... You can give complex answers to every metaphysical, psychological or philosophical question I have. It's... It's impressive but out of character for... for a fox, I mean... I see a fox but I feel like I'm talking with a person. It's unsettling."

"Well... Most pokemon are capable of this, but I assume most do not bother. I have been in a human family all my life, so I was probably contaminated by the way they think... I honestly find all those questions interesting. It might be unusual for a pokemon, but I like thinking about them."

Everything suddenly made sense to me, but the realization was shocking.

"Topa?" I asked, unsure of how exactly to word my question.

"Yes?"

"I have a weird question."

"Sure. I will do my best to answer."

"Are you, er... Have you..."

I sighed and decided to simply ask as directly as I could.

"Topa... Are you a human too?"


	10. Chapter 10

Topa looked heavily puzzled, clearly caught off-guard by the question. She remained silent for what felt like several minutes, then turned her head away from me.

"Sorry, Ruby. I am not. I was born a vulpix. The only transformation I underwent was my evolution."

I wasn't sure if I was relieved or sad to hear it. If that was true, then I still didn't understand how and why she seemed to believe my story even though she had absolutely no reason to, which meant I was at a complete loss when it came to understanding her. On the other hand, that would mean that she would indeed be able to help me with behaving like a normal vulpix and teaching me moves and possibly how to fight, which I was looking forward to. If however she turned out to be lying and to be a human like me, there would probably be a lot of things that I would not learn from her, as she herself couldn't possibly know them.

I had a hard time believing her. Her saying that she was born the same day as Melissa, the human she was assigned to, felt a bit too big of a coincidence for me. Could it be that she referred to the day she turned into a vulpix as her "birth"? Why would she lie to me or hide the fact she was human? Did she think I took pride in my transformation, because it was something that never happened to anyone before? Was she, on the contrary, rightfully assuming that turning into a vulpix caused me dismay and was trying to reassure me by saying no one else had gone through that before?

"Is something the matter?" Topa asked, seeing my thoughtful face.

"Why do you believe me?" I abruptly asked after a few seconds of silence.

"When you say you are a human? I just do. I cannot explain it. I suppose you are expecting a logical explanation, or at least a few reasons that make me believe you, but I cannot provide that."

I wasn't satisfied with her cryptic answer. To me, it felt like she didn't want to give me her reasons to believe me (or her lack of reasons not to), but I couldn't understand why. Was she afraid I would use them against her, to fuel my hatred for this body and this transformation?

"Are you alright?" she asked, clearly worried.

"I don't know," I admitted. "I... I don't understand why you believe me. I myself have a hard time believing you. I just... I just feel like you're more intelligent than me and..."

She came up to me and petted me on the head. When she talked, however, she sounded annoyed.

"You cannot keep thinking like this, Ruby. I am not more intelligent than you and you are not more intelligent than me. You cannot think of someone as superior to someone else. It is very obviously hurting you. Who is more intelligent does not matter. What matters is that you have been turned into a vulpix, neither of us know why, and we have to make sure that your life here is as pleasant as possible. I do not know if it is possible for you to turn back into a human, but in the eventuality it is not, it is no use fretting over such insignificant matters and make yourself miserable."

"It's not my fault," I said.

"I know. The way I see, you can either let yourself be miserable or do something against it. It feels to me like you've chosen the first one, but I do hope that with time, you will start feeling better. As much as I wish I could, I cannot make you happy. This effort will have to come from you."

Did I even want to be happy? I was not fine with this body and I wished I could turn back into a human, but would I accept to be happy as a vulpix if that were impossible? Would being happy mean that I accepted the new body? Why did I even refuse to?

I turned my head, looking at Topa, who was looking at me, clearly worried. If she was actually more intelligent than me, would she be able to help me for more than I initially thought? Did I trust her?

"You should sleep," she said, breaking the silence. "You look tired. Hopefully you will feel clearer tomorrow. We will have to continue practising, too, so you should get some sleep. Please rest."

I couldn't disagree with that. Laying on my pillow, I turned around to face a wall, staring at it trying to imagine what I looked like. I was no longer human - was that enough to make me unhappy?

"Will you want to continue practising firebreathing?" Topa asked me after Agnes left for college.

"Do I really have anything else to do?" I asked.

"I have yet to make you visit the gardens," Topa said after a moment of hesitation. "I am waiting for assurance from the pokemon centre that you have recovered. I do not want to risk anything with the grass or the water."

"Water?"

"There is a stream of water that runs near the house. You have heard it, have you not?"

I had to admit that I had never noticed. Was Topa's hearing better than mine? How come I never heard it?

"Yeah," I lied, unsure of how Topa would take the news. "But... I didn't know it was close. I still have a hard time figuring out where things are..."

"Oh. New senses? How are a human's senses?"

I was surprised by the question and took some time to think about it. While I was silent, Topa lead me to the pokemon training room, crouching to pass through the small cat door, while I could pass through it without trouble.

"Well, hearing is a lot worse. A human's ears aren't very sensitive, and they can't move, so it's hard to make out a sound's location. But these..."

I moved my ears around to better feel them. It felt a bit weird to move them, as I heard things differently depending on where my ears were facing. I was aware it was meant to help me locate a sound's origin, but I was unable to do it properly.

"Also," I added, "the range of sounds they can hear is much lower."

"Range of sounds?"

"Frequencies," I corrected.

"What is a frequency?"

"Huh?"

"I do know what a frequency is when it comes to... doing things regularly, but I do not understand how it applies to sounds."

I remained silent a few seconds with a satisfied look on my face that I hoped Topa would not see. As much as I felt that she was more intelligent than me, I had never realized how much more I knew about how the world worked thanks to school. Topa was just a fox and had never learnt about anything like that. There was no way she could understand.

"Well... I can explain?" I proposed. "Basically... Er..."

How should I explain how sound waves worked to someone who had no notions of physics whatsoever? I would have to explain up to the very basics and I wasn't sure I would be able to.

"Sounds are waves," I hazarded.

"Waves? Like when water advances towards a beach?"

"Yes! Except... water doesn't actually move forward. It only moves up and down."

"But... The waves move forward. And then they crash into the beach. And if water only moves up and down, why do waves crash ashore instead of just collapsing where they are?"

"I... I don't know," I admitted. "That's a good question, honestly. But it's besides the point. Hold on, I'll show you."

I lead Topa to where our water bowls were. Her bowl was a lot bigger than mine, probably to accomodate to her larger muzzle, and would do fine for my experiment. I had to find something to put in the water to float.

"Topa where can I find something that floats?"

"I can find some little piece of wood in the gardens, if you want," she proposed. "Please wait, I will be back soon."

She left the room walking fast, visibly excited to hear what I had to say. Did she know what I planned on doing? Was she playing dumb to make me feel better? If she used to be a human, she would know those things, so why was she acting like she didn't?

Waiting for Topa, I regularly poked the water to create circular waves in it. Although I found it amusing, I felt like my stomach was collapsing on itself. I would probably never get to learn more physics or math or any of the things I used to study as a human. Would my current knowledge eventually fade away and disappear as I became more of a vulpix?

"Having fun, Ruby?" I heard a voice say.

I turned around and recognized Rakuen. She was not wearing her maid outfit, but a simple white summer dress with a small light blue vest on top it. She looked gorgeous in it, standing by the door, smiling at me, holding a book in her hand. I remembered Agnes' order to trust the maids, but I wasn't quite sure I wanted to be petted. I wasn't in the mood for it. In spite of that, I knew I would get in trouble if Agnes learnt I was still avoiding Rakuen. Walking slowly, I made my way from the bowls of water to her, unhappy about having to let her touch me against my will.

She stretched her hand towards me for me to sniff. She had a very pleasant smell partially hidden by her perfume. I found that I enjoyed her smell even more than Agnes' even though I couldn't explain why. There was something about her that I really liked. In an effort to get more of her smell and to show her that I did like her, I started licking her hand, then allowed her to pet me. I could see on her face that she was extremely happy, but I felt disappointed at myself. I still remembered the little game I had unwillingly played with her and felt ashamed of it. However, Rakuen seemed to enjoy petting me more than I enjoyed being petted.

"Today is a day off for me," she said. "I don't have much to do here, so I was thinking I could try and read. Maybe I'll play some video games with Melissa when she returns. Until then, why don't you stay with me?"

She walked to the couches, sat on the big one, and invited me to jump on it to lay by her side. I accepted after a moment of hesitation, thinking I could wait for Topa there. Although I wouldn't have admitted it to the ninetales, I did enjoy Rakuen's company and the way she petted me. As she opened her book, I nested next to her, pushing her with my shoulder, my head on her lap. I felt strangely comfortable in that position. I even felt at ease, a lot more than when Agnes had tried comforting me after the houndour's death, and found myself enjoying the shy cuddle with the maid. Although she was mostly focused on her book, she was petting me from time to time, and for the first time since I had turned into a vulpix, I felt like there was someone I could attach to.

Shortly after, Topa came back from the gardens with a small piece of wood in her muzzle. She found me cuddling with the reading maid but didn't comment on it. I jumped from the couch when she came by and waited for her as she requested a few pets on the head.

"Don't overdo it," Rakuen said, thinking Topa and I were going to play. "Ruby's still recovering, so please don't exhaust her."

Topa nodded and we went back to the bowls of water. She put the piece of wood in her bowl.

"Look," I said, poking the water to create waves again. "You can see that the wood only goes up and down. It doesn't move."

"That is surprising," Topa said, staring at my little experiment. "Thank you for showing me this. I like it!"

I wasn't sure what there was to like, but I felt relieved to know that I had just taught Topa something. Even if she proved to be more intelligent than me, I had all my human knowledge that gave me the edge over her.

"See, you can count how many times the piece of wood reaches its highest point, right? Well, the number of times it does per second is the frequency of the wave."

"I think I understand," Topa said. "So this applies to sound too? If it does, what does sound move? The water moves the piece of wood, but..."

She wasn't too sure how to word her question, but I understood it anyway.

"Air," I replied. "Sound waves move air. Inside your ear is a very small hammer, that is moved from sound waves too, and that is how you can hear things."

"I admit I did not understand that part," Topa replied after a moment of hesitation. "How can air be moved?"

"That would be a bit too hard to explain," I said, not wanting to give it a try. "But... When you feel the wind on your body, that's air moving. Sound waves move air like waves move water, except... water moves up and down, and sound moves forward and backwards."

"How come I cannot feel the air moving from sounds, then? I can definitely feel the wind on my fur."

"Because their movement are extremely small and very fast. With wind, air moves massively, but with sound, it doesn't move much. See, waves have... two important parameters, I'll say. Frequency, which I explained earlier, and amplitude, which is basically... How high the piece of wood goes."

"Amplitude," she repeated, as if to try to learn the word. "So... the more amplitude the sound waves have, the more air moves, right?"

"That's correct."

"Does that mean that it can reach a point where I could feel sound waves on my fur?"

That was a good question.

"Probably," I replied, unsure of what I was saying. "But... You'd probably be deaf before that happens. For sounds, amplitude is called volume."

"Oh, I see! The more the air moves, the louder a sound is!"

"Yes!" I said, smiling.

I felt... happy. I had always enjoyed explaining things and teaching others, and I felt like I had just taught Topa something major that she had no idea about. She looked very excited and eager to learn more, and I could only share her enthusiasm.

"That is amazing!" she said, breaking the silence.

"Pardon?"

"Did you learn that in school? That is really amazing. Do humans know more about how the world works? How much do you yourself know? I want to learn more!"

"Well..." I replied, blushing. "Humans have entire jobs dedicated to trying to understand how the world works. As far as I am concerned... I don't know much compared to everything humans have figured out, but I used to study physics, so I would say I know a lot of things you would be curious to learn."

"Can you tell me more? What subjects do you know about?"

"Lots... I suppose. I have a lot of general knowledge, but I don't know many things in depth. I had only started learning about deeper physics before I..."

My throat clenched. Why was it so hard for me to talk about my transformation?

"I want to learn more," Topa repeated. "Please tell me more!"

"Later," I said, unwilling to explain more at the moment. "When we come across something I can explain, I'll try."

We went to the pokemon sports room for me to keep practising breathing fire.

"What about your other senses?" she asked on our way.

"The sense of smell is... different. I can't explain it, really. A human's nose is weak. Really weak."

"Did you get used to your new senses? Can you use them?"

"No," I replied bluntly. "I still have no idea what I'm smelling most of the time. I can hear things alright, but I can't locate them."

"Use your ears to do that," Topa said. "You have to move your ears to locate the sound. It is a bit hard to explain, but if you want, we can practise that."

"I... wouldn't mind," I admitted.

"For now, let us focus on firebreathing. You still need to be able to breathe fire with your muzzle open."

I spent the rest of the day practising firebreathing under Topa's careful eye. She seemed to be pretty satisfied with how I was improving, and before Agnes came back from college, I was finally able to breathe long streams of fire with my muzzle open. Unfortunately, I didn't have much stamina, and my flames still felt rather weak, but Topa said it was fairly normal for my young age, and my flames would gain in power as I improved at fighting and aged up.

When Agnes came back from college, I was waiting for her in the main hall. I wanted to compare her scent to Rakuen's and figure out exactly why I enjoyed Rakuen's more.

"Hello Ruby," she said as I jumped on my hind legs to request to be in her arms.

As she talked, I spent time sniffing at her, but I wasn't listening. As expected, I enjoyed Rakuen's scent more, but in spite of my smelling her with insistance, I didn't understand why.

After petting me gently, then petting Topa, she put me back on the floor and went to her room. I went to the couch where the maid was still sitting. Melissa was sitting next to her and they were playing a video game together. Upon seeing me, Melissa grabbed me and put me on the couch, where I laid cuddling with Rakuen as I did earlier. Melissa petted me from time to time when her game allowed her to, and I stayed there until dinner.

"The gardens?" I hazarded.

"Too vague!" Topa replied.

We were both in Topa's room, sitting on our respective pillow. Topa was making me listen to faint noises and try to guess where they came from.

"How can I give more precise directions if I don't even know what the gardens look like?"

"You have a point. Well then, just precise north, south, east or west!"

"How do I tell where north is?"

Topa stood up, turned around a few times, then raised her head a bit as if she were smelling something far away, and said:

"North is that way."

I had no idea how she did that. It felt like magic to me.

"How do you do that?"

"You can feel it," she said. "The same way you learnt about your inner flame. Trust your senses and let the vulpix part of you tell you."

As much as I disliked her cryptic way of saying it that made me feel like I was in some bad movie, what she said did make sense to me. Unfortunately, in spite of all my efforts, I couldn't even hazard a guess and gave up.

"What about this one?" Topa asked.

Raising my ears, I could hear a faint noise that I identified as a critter walking through the grass. Moving both of my ears in different directions and listening to how it affected the sound, I noticed that the sound felt louder when my left ear was turned to the side of my body. My right ear didn't seem to change the sound much by moving, which meant it probably came from my left. Based on that and on what direction Topa identified as north, I hazarded a guess:

"South?"

"Correct," Topa said. "You should be able to locate the sounds more accurately, but this will have to do. The entrance of the manor and the gates face south. That is the properly maintained part of the garden, too. The northern part is part of the forest that extends far into the mountains, and it has been kept that way with minimal human intervention for pokemon to play in. There are a lot of critters and birds there, but a fence prevents most wild pokemon from getting in. Even without the gate, I doubt they would risk stepping into human territory. Some wild pokemon are scared of humans."

"How come?" I asked.

"It is natural. Were animals not scared of humans in your world too?"

"Well... yeah," I conceded. "But..."

I wasn't sure how to word my question and gave up on asking it.

"You talked about a stream of water," I remembered. "Where is it?"

"Why do you not tell me where it is?" Topa said smiling. "Raise your ears and try to locate the water."

I did but had trouble locating it. I could hear the water alright, but it seemed to spread over a long distance, going from somewhere northeast, which I assumed to be the mountains, to southeast-east, where it gradually fainted until I couldn't hear it anymore. The water stream sounded loudest around northeast, where I assumed to passed close to the house.

"Northeast?"

"That is where it is closest, yes. You are doing good!"

She continued testing me by making me locate different kinds of critters and owls that we could hear. The more I tried, the more accurate I became and the faster I could locate my target by moving my ears more efficiently. Unfortunately, all this required active effort on my end, and ideally, I should be able to do it automatically, but I was yet to reach that level of mastery. My body still felt very new to me, and although I was still learning to use it, I still felt like a stranger in it.

After I could locate critters properly, Topa made me track the movement of several guards and their growlithe, one at a time at first, then several at once. Following several sounds at once proved to be very difficult, but it was definitely doable, and after what felt like hours of effort, I finally was able to do it although still approximately. However, there was a new noise that caught my attention.

"Topa, what's that noise?"

She raised an ear herself, focusing deeply on the noise I was talking about. It sounded like metal moving, as if an animal was hitting the fence. After a few seconds of it, the sound stopped, and the gardens were filled with silence. Shortly after, the growlithe started barking, and I heard guards shouting orders at each others. I could clearly hear rapid footsteps in the back gardens. They were closing in to the house.

"Topa, what's going on?" I asked, shivering.

"Do not worry," she said, walking up to me to cover me with her tails. "You will have to get used to those sounds and wake up to them. Do you remember what I said about thieves? This is one of them. The guards and growlithe will give chase until they catch the burglar."

After a few minutes of what sounded like a chase, the footsteps stopped momentarily, only to resume, still followed by the barks of growlithe and the shouts of guards. The voices surrounded the house, patrolling around it, searching the gardens.

"Topa?" I whispered.

It took me a moment to realize that I felt anxious. My heart was beating faster than it should, and despite Topa's tails cover my body, I felt immensely cold. I was staring at the door, expecting some kind of monster to appear at any moment, then jump at me to swallow me whole.

"Wait here," Topa said, standing up and walking to the door.

Before leaving, she turned to me, extremely serious.

"Hide. No matter what happens, do not come out. Do you hear me?"

I nodded. Topa's suddenly serious attitude had finished terrorizing me. As she was running to leave the door, I hid as I could, trembling in fear. Whatever was happening, I wasn't ready for it.


	11. Chapter 11

After Topa left the room, I looked around, looking for a place I could hide in. I was dying to exit to the room and go knock at Agnes' door until she let me in, but I knew I was not allowed in the humans' bedrooms, and disturbing them in their sleep would probably have me in trouble. Unfortunately, I couldn't find any correct hiding spots in Topa's room. Short on solutions, I dragged her massive pillow to the angle of the walls bearing the door and the one on the left when entering and managed to stick the pillow in the corner, in a way that made it possible for me to sneak behind it, while the door would protect me from eyes at least for a moment. Shivering in fear, I crawled into my improvised shelter and waited, focusing entirely on the sounds I could hear.

A group of guards were patrolling around the gardens at a fast pace, probably looking for the intruder. I heard some close in to the house then stop moving, guarding the entrance to make sure the thief would not get in. They saluted Topa as if she were some high-ranked military officer, giving her an explanation of the situation. I could hear their voices distinctly enough to understand what the guards were saying, but they were a bit distorted, probably damaged by their travels through the walls. The thief had broken in by climbing the fence and was immediately given chase, but was lost track of when he tried to lose the guards in the forest part of the gardens. The guards were making preparations to search the trees, saying that Topa's intervention was not needed. After a short silence, I could hear Topa say:

"Follow me."

That order was probably more for the growlithe than for the humans, and one of the guards, probably responsible for patrols, followed her. They went to the place I last heard the theif in, then became silent for a second, after which they started moving again. Walking slowly through the grass, they followed Topa as she requested, lead to a place where they stopped completely, probably the tree the thief was hidden in. The guards shouted, giving the intruder the order to get down of the tree and surrender peacefully. After a few seconds of silence, a terrorized voice answered, saying that they were going to shoot him as soon as he was vulnerable and would rather be shot directly in his tree. Although the guards tried to reason with him, he did not seem to be willing to surrender, but was showing no signs of animosity - only immense fear. After a few minutes of unsuccessful talking, I heard a metallic click noise. One of the guards had taken his gun and cocked it.

"No," Topa said, sounding angry.

There were a few seconds of silence, then an absurdly high-pitched, extremely unpleasant noise. The sound was so ear-splitting that I attempted to cover mine with my paws in an effort to reduce its intensity. Despite it being rather faint, it gave me a bad headache and numerous dizzy spells. Shortly after, I heard the thief emit a short cry of pain, then a dull sound, followed by a much longer and louder scream. The guards instantly moved, rushing to the origin of the muffled bang, accompanied with a vaguely metallic noise - the thief was being handcuffed and taken away.

"Ruby?" Topa asked when she came back to the room.

I moved from my shelter, still trembling in fear, although there was obviously no danger anymore - if there had ever been any. I was infinitely relieved to see Topa completely unharmed, still displaying her usual confident smile. I felt like I was about to break down in tears when I rushed to her, burying my head between her front paws, my tails waggling violently.

"Hey!" she said, visibly surprised by my reaction. "I am fine. There was really no danger. The burglar was nothing more than a common thief, and he certainly did not expect to be given chase by any guards. He was quite scared when we found him in the tree."

"What happened?"

"He would not agree to come down. He thought the guards would shoot him."

"How did you get him down then? I heard him fall."

"Well... Since he would not cooperate, I used Confuse Ray to make him lose his grip on his branch, then Ember to make him lose balance and fall. You probably heard him shout when the Ember hit him, did you not?"

"Yeah..."

"Well, he did fall, but he was too confused to do anything to soften his fall and broke his arm."

"Huh? Is that not dangerous? Aren't you going to get in trouble?"

"Absolutely not! The thief is injured, but not fatally wounded at all. And this is a clear case of self-defense. This is not the first time a burglar has been injured when chased or captured."

"Okay..." I sighed, not quite convinced.

Topa grabbed her pillow and put in back where it should have been, then laid on it.

"This has been a fairly eventful night," she said before yawning deeply. "How about resting?"

Although I went back to my own pillow to try to sleep, I was still too scared to really rest and spent an awful unrestful night listening to whatever my ears could detect, expecting something else to break into the gardens.

The day after, as I was practising firebreathing again under Topa's careful guidance, I tried to question her about the events of the night.

"So... What exactly am I supposed to do when someone breaks into the gardens?"

"Nothing... Usually. The guards catch most burglars fast enough."

"But if they don't?"

"Well, considering your current state, I fear you may not be of much help. Once you recover from your wound and know more moves, you will be able to help."

I remained silent a few seconds, remembering how scared I was the night before despite being perfectly safe in Topa's room.

"I don't think I'd be of any help at all even then," I said.

"Of course you will be! Any help is appreciated. I will tell you more when you are healed, but for now, I want you to focus on that... and firebreathing. Come on."

I continued practising, although my focus was elsewhere. I couldn't imagine myself chasing a human or doing anything that could actually help catch a burglar. I was scared of even the maids, so how would I hold myself together against someone who's clearly a foe?

By the end of the day, I could do everything Topa asked me to do with my fire, from throwing short bursts to holding a large flame in front of me, my muzzle wide open.

"Marvelous!" she said as I was laying down, exhausted from breathing so much fire all day. "You are good. It took you less than a week to be able to do this, but it took me a lot longer. Do you remember when you threw your first flame on Monday?"

"Yeah, but... It's no fair. I... The... The vulpix in me already knew how to do it. If anything, I should not have had to learn. I should have been able to do it instantly."

"You are not the vulpix in you," Topa said to try to comfort me. "And even if what you say is true, then _you_ _did _have to learn from... the vulpix in you, as you said. Either way, there is no way you should have been able to do it instantly after taking over your body. Humans do not breathe fire in your world, do they?"

"Of course not."

"Well then! You should be proud of yourself."

I knew I should be, but I felt bad, as if I did not deserve the praise. I felt like a parasite taking over another animal's body and controlling it, like those larvae that entered people's heads through the ear canal before spreading around their brains and stealing their bodies in a series of books I remembered reading. I wasn't even sure there actually was a "vulpix part of me", as if the vulpix whose body I shamelessly stole was still there in her brain with me. Wouldn't I have been able to notice if there were someone else in my head? Would the vulpix not have tried to communicate with me, if only to recover access to her body, or give me information? Did she resent me?

What if there was no vulpix part of me? How had I been able to breathe fire and control my senses even though my human brain would have been completely unable to do it? What exactly was the role of the brain, in this case? I was obvious I did have a vulpix's brain, but what exactly did that imply? I could control the brain, at least to some extent, or I would not be able to control my body at all, but could the brain control me in return? Was that why I sometimes acted naturally for a vulpix, but felt embarrassment and shame afterwards? Would the original vulpix's brain eventually take over me? Would I disappear?

"Say, Topa..." I hazarded, still unsure how to word my question.

"Yes?"

"I... I was wondering. Is there really a... vulpix part of me... I mean..."

I tried to explain to her my thoughts about the vulpix's brain controlling me at times, but I must have worded my explanation poorly, as she did not seem to understand. I tried to explain again:

"Well... My body belonged to a vulpix who died, right?"

"From what we know, it seems correct, indeed."

"Then what happened to her? And I'm not asking about what happens after death, but I mean... This is her body. Shouldn't she be... Somewhere with me... in it?"

"If she died, then I do not believe she was going to use her body much anymore."

"What do pokemon think about death?"

"Nothing," Topa replied after a short hesitation. "When we die, we die. End of the journey. There is not much to think about it though, is there?"

"Well... It brings questions that are impossible to answer. What is consciousness, for example. See, we know a lot about our bodies, we know how it works, we know how the brain communicates with the limbs, but... We have no idea what consciousness is. Are trees conscious? Is every living organism conscious? Is there a consciousness above all? Evolution for example, does it happen randomly is there an unknown purpose?"

"Hold on, you lost me. I do not know what evolution is. Also, I was not aware that trees were living creatures."

"Well, not exactly creatures, but... They are alive. It's... it's hard to explain. And honestly, I'm not sure exactly how life is defined anyway."

"Let us forget that part then. Do humans have theories about consciousness?"

"Science doesn't. Religions... I'm not sure. But there are people who talk about souls or spirits and say that they are the bearers of consciousness. And when a body dies, the soul escapes, then depending on your religion, it goes to heaven or hell or reincarnates or whatever."

Topa seemed to be thoughtful for a moment.

"If we assume that souls do exist and do carry... consciousness... Then I believe we have our answer! The vulpix died, her soul escaped her body, and you took it over. That can even explain why you survived death and started breathing again!"

"But then... I had to be a soul myself. And in that case... I was dead?"

Topa's eyes widened as she realized what exactly her hypothesis implied. She apologized to me, but I wasn't listening. I was dead? My human body was dead? Why? When?

"Ruby?"

Topa saw the distress in my eyes as I was trying to guess how exactly I had died. She hugged me, but short on words, said nothing until I calmed down, remembering that we were only trying to understand what happened, and we were not certain that my original body was indeed dead.

Shortly after, Agnes burst into the training room, asking me to follow her. She lead me to the TV room, where she had been watching the news. Topa joined us right after, and I instantly recognized the pokemon centre and the journalist that had been allowed into my room. As we sat and laid on the big couch, the interview recorded with Nurse Joy was playing.

"I thought you'd want to watch this," Agnes said, trying to hide her anger.

After Nurse Joy was done talking, the picture shifted to the video that was recorded of me.

All I could see was a little fox with brown fur. Its paws were, as expected, of a darker shade of brown, and the tails were orange. A small patch of fur at the top of its head showed the same colour as the tails. The belly, however, was of an off-white colour. Around its belly was a gigantic bandage, under which some fur was still tainted red from the blood. With its small body, large legs and big head, it looked like a cub, staring at the recorder with angry eyes. It was scrawny, and its fur was matt and thin, as if it were malnourished or sick. The vulpix clearly had some trouble to breathe, and was very unhappy with being disturbed by the journalists.

It took me a second to realize that the fox I was seeing was none other than me. I felt like my heart skipped a beat when I came to realize it. Fortunately for me, I had no time to dwell in my usual depressive state whenever I was reminded of my situation, for the journalist started explaining the situation:

"The vulpix you just saw is the eighth known victim of the serial killer that has been striking irregularly for a few years now, and the only surviror. Police investigations are still undergoing, and so far, it has been discovered that the murderer only targets fire-type pokemon that are likely to be used by the police. Whether this is the vengeance of a maniac or a protest against local authorities remains unknown, as are the motives behind the crimes."

The image shifted to that of a fairly old man, accompanied with a noble Absol, who seemed to be the commissioner, and was giving a bit of detail about the case. Topa and I exchanged concerned looks.

"The vulpix is now in good health and has been adopted by the Trokair family," the journalist finished. "We advise all trainers who own a fire-type pokemon to be particularly careful when out, and we hope that the police will catch this murderer soon."

Agnes switched the TV off. She was fulminating.

"Did they need to give my fucking name?" she roared, standing up. "What pests! Can't they just leave people alone for crying out loud? Do they need to stir up every little bit of drama they can get their claws on?"

I put my head against her leg in an attempt to calm her down.

"Sorry, Ruby," she said, picking me up to cuddle. "I just can't fucking stand it. You don't need all that unnecessary attention."

Agnes went on a rant against journalists, but I wasn't listening. Looking at Topa, I realized we had the same thing in mind, but even on our respective bed, we decided not to talk about it.

I was woken up early the day after, despite it being a Saturday. Agnes came to Topa's room and softly woke us up. Topa didn't seem to mind and, as usual, felt like she'd been awake for hours just a minute after standing up, but I was still too sleepy and wanted to go back to my pillow.

"No, no," Agnes said, concealing her amusement at my desperate attempts to hold onto my bed. "We are going to the pokemon centre for a follow-up on your recovery today, and you need to be clean and pretty for it! The appointment is around noon, so we have time. Let's have breakfast first!"

She carried me to the kitchens, frequently poking my muzzle with her finger to stop me from falling back asleep. It was a bit annoying to have my snout touched so regularly, but I couldn't help feeling amused by it and didn't try to defend myself. Agnes seemed to have a bit of fun as well, as she was silently smiling.

After we were done eating, preparations were made to wash me. I didn't have the feeling that I was particularly filthy, and Topa seemed to agree, but Agnes insisted. I instantly recognized Rakuen, who seemed to be excited.

"Hey Ruby," she said when I peeked inside the bathtub. "Since I'm the maid who's been assigned to you, I'll be the one helping Agnes wash you. We'll try not to let any water onto the bandages, but overall it might not be a very pleasant experience for you. Try to stay still, okay? The less you struggle the shorter it will be!"

I wasn't very happy with Rakuen's warning that being washed might be unpleasant, but she had a point: if I stood still and cooperated, it wouldn't last too long.

After she was done aligning products by the bathtub, among which I only recognized a shampoo apparently designed for foxes, Rakuen spent some time petting me before Agnes joined us. She had some sort of plastic sheet with her.

"Hello Rakuen," she said, approaching me to pet me too.

"Hello Agnes," the maid replied, stepping backwards to give Agnes access to me.

"Ruby, we're going to use this to avoid having water on your bandages and, more importantly, on your wound. I'm going to wrap this around your bandages. It might be uncomfortable, but it's necessary. Can you stand?"

As she requested, I stood up, and she started wrapping the plastic sheet around my belly. She made it very tight at the borders of the bandage, which indeed felt uncomfortable, but didn't tighten it otherwise, not applying unnecessary pressure on my wound. The plastic sheet was pressuring my bladder, which made me feel like I needed to relieve myself, and the bottom of my ribcage, but overall I could deal with that easily.

"Alright," Agnes said, putting on a pair of surgical gloves and giving one to Rakuen. "Let's go."

I was carefully lifted then placed in the bathtub. Agnes asked me to stay still and warned that she would spray me with water, starting with my tails and hind legs.

My first reaction as the water came into contact with my rear was to jolt forward and try to turn around, but Agnes stopped me with one hand. I took a step back to place myself back where I was before jumping forward and closed my eyes, clenching my teeth to support it as they were washing me. I could feel them touch my tails and that made me extremely embarrassed. I felt them waving around as if to try to dodge the hands against my will. My tails felt extremely heavy, having a lot of water stuck onto the fur, and were resting on the bathtub after the humans were done washing them.

"Close your eyes, Ruby," Agnes asked gently.

I already was closing them, but I wasn't ready for what came next - water started flowing at the top of my head, startling me again. It was comfortably warm, but having water on my head made me feel like it was hard to breathe. I was only breathing by bursts. Agnes and Rakuen washed my head as fast as they could, carefully avoiding putting water into my ears, then approximately dried it with a towel so I could breathe more freely. They finished washing my chest and front paws before turning the hose off.

"Okay," Agnes said. "Time to dry you."

I shook my whole body to try to get rid of the water that was stuck in my fur, which was apparently expected as both Agnes and Rakuen protected themselves with towels, which they then used to help dry me. After that was done, Agnes was given a blow dryer to finish it while Rakuen put the products they used back in cupboards. Topa came back to the room right as Agnes turned off the blow dryer.

"There!" Agnes said, picking me up and looking at me. "You look so cute! Look."

She carried me to the mirror and showed it to me.

I looked cute. Compared to what I had seen the day before from the recording at the pokemon centre, I looked a lot more healthy. My fur was a lot shinier, and very fluffy. Traces of blood on my belly were gone. Unfortunately, the bandage wasn't, and I didn't get to see the scar that I would bear for the rest of my life. Opening and closing my paws, I took a look at my claws from the mirror. I had a hard time believe that the little fox I was seeing was actually me.

"You look a lot better!" Topa said once Agnes put me down.

"Huh... thanks."

"I insist!" she said, visibly trying to make me feel better. "You look very cute. And healthier.

She closed in to me to sniff at my fur.

"This is the same shampoo they use for me," she noticed. "There are other products too though, but I do not know what they are for."

I shrugged. It didn't matter anyway, those were details I didn't need to know. I wasn't the one responsible for washing myself anymore, so why bother trying to understand what the products did?

"How does it feel to be clean? If I remember correctly, you have not been washed since you left the pokemon centre."

"Yeah," I replied. "It feels... nice? I mean... I'm so fluffy. I didn't think I'd have so much fur."

"Your fur is not that long, remember that we are still in summer. When you have your winter coat, you will be surprised by how fluffy you are!"

"Yeah... Still, that wasn't pleasant. I don't like being touched."

"You do not? I rather enjoy being washed. Think of it like being petted, but it lasts longer, and you smell and look good afterwards!"

"I don't like it," I said, pouting. "They touched my... my butt. And my tails. I hated it when they touched my tails. It was... Embarrassing. It's like my tails are... private. I don't want people to touch them."

"I can understand," Topa replied. "I do not like having my tails touched either. In fact, as far as I know, pokemon and animals altogether loathe that. Humans have a legend that say touching a ninetales' tails lays a curse on them that lasts a thousand years. In reality, that is just because a ninetales is likely to attack if you touch their tails without them allowing you to. Since ninetales is known to have ghost and sometimes psychic powers, humans assume they become cursed, but they really just are under the effect of Confuse Ray."

"Sometimes? I thought all vulpix and ninetales had psychic powers."

"They do not!" Topa replied, smiling. "For example, I do not have any psychic powers. However, every vulpix is capable of ghost-type moves. The two I listed are among them."

"What do they do? I mean... I have an idea of what Confuse Ray might do because of the games in my world, but... I don't know how it actually works."

"Well... Confuse Ray is a control move. The unpower version messes with your target's ability to control their powers. If they are not too strong, their own powers will attack them instead of attacking you. If it happens to you, it feels like an explosion. When you are trying to gather your powers for a move, they just explode at you instead."

"Gather?"

"I will explain that more in detail when I start teaching you Ember."

"Okay... What does the real version do then?"

"Confuses the brain. I am not sure how it works exactly, but your movements become approximative. As if you were... drunk, I suppose."

"That sounds horrible," I said. "Is there a way to get out of it?"

"It goes away with time. If you are talking about the unpower one, then it takes focus to get rid of it."

"Are you going to teach me Confuse Ray too?"

"If you want! I can teach you all moves that I know, but we have to start with the easy ones. Ember is a start."

I nodded, hoping that she would start with that soon. I knew how to breathe fire now, and she promised she'd teach me to use my unpowers as soon as I did. I felt impatient, as if my new life was slowly unrolling to make sense. Although I still wasn't quite aware what my role would be as a police pokemon, I was certain that being able to fight would be of paramount importance, and I couldn't wait to learn.


	12. Chapter 12

"Are you ready to go the pokemon centre?" Agnes asked, going back to the room.

She was wearing a really nice summer dress of a pale blue colour. It felt weird for me to see her in casual attire, as I was more used to the pants and T-shirt she wore when she went to her police school. Her black hair was for once untied and went down to the bottom of her neck, styled in a simple side fringe. She was carrying a dark blue purse, coming out of which I saw a lot of paper sheet she was probably going to take to the pokemon centre.

I turned towards her and nodded. She came to pick me up while Topa watched us leave, sitting quietly by her pillow. My eyes met hers as Agnes exited the room. She looked very happy, but there was something in them that I couldn't decrypt, as if she had something in mind that I was not expecting. Pushing myself to look over Agnes' shoulder, I tried to get the ninetales' attention:

"Topa!"

"Shhh," Agnes said, scratching my head as if to comfort me. "Melissa is still sleeping, try not to wake her up! Don't worry, it shouldn't last too long. It's just a few follow-up tests to make sure everything's alright."

She seemed to think that I didn't want to leave Topa, which wasn't far from the truth. I didn't really want to go back to the pokemon centre either, although my short trip there wasn't all that bad, considering the situation I was in - most of the nurses had been really kind to me (except the fat grumpy one), and I would probably rejoice to see them again, but I didn't want to stay there for too long.

Once again, I was put in a cage when we reached the car. I could smell the unidentified vulpix odours again, but I could identify one of them - the strongest one - as Topa, which meant there were still two faint odours left: one male vulpix and one female. I could smell the differences in the odours, and compare them to what I knew of Topa and my own, but I was still unable to exactly tell what was what. From what I understood, the odours being fainter meant that they both had not been in the cage for a long time - even longer than Topa. Since she was the only ninetales in the house, it was safe to assume that both other odours were gone - dead, missing, or given away? I was also certain that they were all vulpix, since the cage was probably too small for Topa, but that raised more questions. The female odour was the faintest, so faint that I could only catch glimpses of it. Did the vulpix it belonged to evolve long ago? Then, what about the male one? Did he evolve too? How could I tell? All I knew for certain is that there used to be two other vulpix in the house, but I had no idea when, and I had no way to know what happened to them.

The road towards the pokemon centre was shorter than I remembered - probably because I was focused on the odours trying to figure out what they were. It was a massive relief for me to be liberated from the cage, but I had a weird feeling seeing the pokemon centre from the front. It was a huge building, much bigger than I remembered hospitals to be. All I remembered of the way between the car and the centre was clumsily walking from the latter to the former, and now I was walking the same path in the other direction. I felt like my steps were a lot more confident, and at least my belly hurt less, but it very much felt like I was going back there to be stuck in it again, as if walking that path meant I was going to undo all the progress I had made in the past week. This was my fourteenth day as a vulpix, a Saturday, and I had left the hospital on a Sunday, the beginning of my eighth day. I couldn't help but think there was some significant symbolism in this event and the weird way in which the dates seemed to match.

As we stepped into the building, I was taken by a strong wave of fear. I felt like everyone was going to stare at me, recognizing me from that stupid news interview, and because my leaving the pokemon centre but a week ago seemed to have been a big event, judging by how many people had gathered to bid me farewell. I was reluctant to go in, but the presence of Agnes by my side made me feel better, and I expected her to shield me should anything happen - or protect me from everyone's eyes if it came to that.

I was happily disappointed to realize that my entrance was completely unnoticed. I sighed in relief, for I would not have to deal with all the curious looks from people around me. I saw from afar a few nurses noticing me, but they gave me a quick look and carried on their activities.

"Hello, Agnes," the receptionist said. "Coming for the check-in for your vulpix?"

"Yup," Agnes confirmed, taking the papers out of her purse. "I brought those, since I couldn't do it before."

"Marvelous," the nurse said, taking the papers from Agnes. "Let's see... Ruby, heh? That is a great name."

She skimmed over the papers, checking their contents.

"Everything looks fine. If you would please take a sit, Nurse Joy will be available shortly."

Agnes followed the order and sat on a chair, inviting me to either sit by her side or jump on her lap. I hesitated, unsure of how high I was able to jump, and scared of possible pain in my belly. My trainer seemed to have understood my reluctance to move and carefully picked me up, put me on her lap and started petting me, much to my enjoyment.

After a fairly long wait, Nurse Joy walked up to us and greeted us with a smile. I felt my tails wag when I noticed her, and she happily petted me on the head.

"Hey you," she said after greeting Agnes properly, turning her attention to me. "I'm glad to see you're doing well. My, you look so much better now! Have you been giving her the medication?"

"Yup," Agnes confirmed. "I've been mixing it with her food. She's never complained, so I assume she doesn't mind."

She looked at me as if to have my support, and I joyfully nodded. Internally however, I felt upset and disgusted to my stomach. Agnes had been hiding meds in my food and I never noticed. I felt weak. I was persuaded I should have noticed. Did Topa know? If she did, why did she not tell me?

"If you would please follow me," Nurse Joy said, "let's start with the exams."

She lead me to a room that looked nothing like the one I was in after waking up. It was smaller and less isolated. I could hear nurses, humans and pokemon in other rooms. The whole pokemon centre sounded a lot busier than I remembered.

Agnes was allowed to stay with me as Nurse Joy drew some blood.

"We're going to test her for infections," she said. "Pokemon have a much stronger immune system than humans, but she is still at risk. The abdominal cavity is a sterile part of the body, and her wound might have brought bacteria in. We drained all we could before stitching her up, but it's best to check again. Judging by her fur though, I think she's completely fine."

The blood sample was given to another nurse, who hurried out of the room, probably to test it for infections. Nurse Joy then pulled a weird machine from a corner of the room.

"This is an ultrasound machine," she said. "I'm going to check for internal damage, and to make sure organs and muscle are repairing properly. Let's take off this evil bandage now."

That last order was directed at me, laying on the bed. I stood up and nurse Joy started undoing the bandage. Putting it aside, she grabbed a little flashlight and started inspecting the wound. Her touching my belly gave me shivers, and I was expecting to be in great pain at any moment just from the contact of her fingers on the scar.

"Don't worry," nurse Joy said, feeling I was tense. "It won't hurt."

As she continued carefully scouting the scar, she commented out loud, more for Agnes than for herself:

"The flesh seems to have been healing properly. The scar tissue is easily visible, but of a proper colour. Fur is growing again around it, but there will always be this little hole in it."

She turned to Agnes, suggesting she take a look at it as well. She reluctantly agreed, but seemed to be relieved by what she saw.

"I'm going to push on your belly a bit, Ruby," Nurse Joy said. "It will be uncomfortable, so please don't bite me."

I nodded, clenching my teeth. She gently pushed on several places around the wound, which felt very uncomfortable as she warned me, but it was not painful. Keeping that part of the exam as short as she could, she switched her flashlight off and petted me.

"This is looking good," she said. "She's recovering very well."

She pushed me on the shoulder to ask me to lay down. I obeyed and was forced to lay on my back, Agnes holding my body in this position. I was tense and scared, feeling vulnerable and completely exposed. Fortunately, the ultrasound didn't last long, and I was allowed to rest on my left side, facing my trainer.

"Good," Nurse Joy said as only comment.

She left the room, saying she'd be back with the blood test results. Agnes and I were now alone, waiting.

I wanted to try looking at my belly to see the scar, but at the same time, I felt terrified. I remembered oh too well what was said about it, and the additional information Nurse Joy told me made it even scarier. I was still morbidly curious and I really wanted to know what kind of scar I would bear for the rest of my life, but the idea of seeing it was too scary and I made it a point not to look in the direction of the rest of my body.

"Were you happy to see Nurse Joy again?" Agnes asked, breaking the silence.

I stared at her, surprised. There was something sad in her voice - some sort of disappointment, mixed with a bit of jealousy. I wasn't sure what to answer.

"She's really kind," Agnes said. "She's the head of the center, yet she took on her time to take care of you herself. Did you know she is not actually a nurse? Nurse Joy is a title given to the directors of pokemon centers. I don't even know her real name."

I was glad to notice that my hypothesis about the pink hair and the Nurse Joy name was right, but I felt like something was off. Agnes was clearly speaking to me, yet she didn't seem to make sure I was paying any attention. She was staring at the void, vomiting sentences in a lifeless voice, contrasting violently with her usual joyful and smiling self.

I poked her with my left front leg, trying to get her attention. She silently jolted, as if I was waking her up from a dream, and forced a smile.

I forced my tails to wag as she started petting me, which lit her gloomy face with a shy smile. When she tried to take her hand away, I grabbed it with both front paws, requesting to be petted more. She displayed another smile - a more truthful one, this time, and obliged. I made my tails wag slower as time went by, closing my eyes more and more rapidly, until I stopped moving altogether, pretending to be asleep, still holding Agnes' hand between my paws.

Why was I not happy? My wound was healing well, the nurse that had been taking care of me and whom I liked a lot was again checking on my health, and although I was once more on a hospital bed, I was no longer alone, and I even had my human with me who was petting me. Aside from the transformation, I had nothing to be sad about, yet I felt very unhappy. Agnes' hand was resting on my head, for she was unwilling to remove it after I grabbed it so fiercely, but she didn't seem to be very happy either. The atmosphere in my room was heavy and dark, as if the ceiling lights had been dimmed to accompany Agnes' feelings.

Why was Agnes not happy? What did that question about Nurse Joy mean? Why was she acting so weirdly gloomy?

I didn't have time to think about it, as Nurse Joy came back with the blood test results. Agnes woke me up gently. Once again, my tails started wagging against my will when I saw the pink hair in spite of my efforts at stopping them. Agnes sighed.

"Everything is fine," the doctor said with a smile. "There are no infections."

"That's a relief," Agnes said.

I wasn't sure whether or not she was being truthful. There was a weird tone in her voice.

"I have a few instructions to give you," Nurse Joy added. "She's doing better, but she's not fully healed yet. I would advise against any kind of strainuous activities like battling or wrestling. You should walk her regularly to keep her healthy, although it might tire her quickly, but no running, jumping or fighting of any sort. You can start allowing those when she shows signs of being more energetic, in around a week if her recovery keeps going well. I will bandage her belly again for safety, but there is little risk of infections now, so it is not necessary. You can take it off to wash her wound but be careful not to expose it to water too long. You don't want the incision getting wet. Also, no bathing or swimming at all until her recovery is complete. Going outside is fine, but have someone watch her at all times."

"Understood," Agnes said, recovering her naturally confident voice. "Shall we take an appointment for the final check-up?"

"Yes, that is a good idea. Let's say... two weeks. Friday the fifteenth?"

"That works," Agnes said. "My vacation starts today, so I'll be free for a whole month. Classes resume in July."

What kind of weird class schedule was that?

"Oh," Nurse Joy said as if she had forgotten Agnes was still a student. "Second half of the year?"

"Yup. That is when we start lessons with and for pokemon."

"She will have recovered by then," Nurse Joy said as if to reassure Agnes. "She might still be weak, but she'll be able to attend."

I stopped paying attention to anything past that point. So that was what was going to happen to me, and in a short time - classes. In a way, the idea that I would be a student again felt comfortably relieving, for I used to be a student before my life changed completely, but I was worried about what I was going to do. I was no science student anymore - I was but a mere police dog and would be trained as such. On top of that, even in my world, I had no idea what police dogs actually did, so I was walking straight into unknown territory. My leisure days excused by my recovery were soon to be over, and my actual new life was just about to start.

"July, you said?" Topa repeated when I reported the conversation to her. "That is in a month pretty exactly. You will have time to heal."

"I'm not worried about that!" I almost shouted, clearly agitated. "I don't know Ember. I don't know how to fight. I don't know anything!"

"And that makes you worried other pokemon might find out you are a human. Do not worry. I trust you will be able to use Ember way before the classes resume."

"I don't want to be a police dog," I pouted.

"Well, if anything, you would be a police fox."

I stared at Topa with murderous eyes.

"Being a police officer is not the source of your worry," she added, conscious that her joke was not appreciated. "I have said that already, but you need to..."

"... stop worrying about others finding out I'm a human", I finished, interrupting her. "I know. You keep saying that. How could I not worry about it? Do you know what they would do to me if they knew?"

"No," Topa replied bluntly. "Do you?"

Her unexpected sharp answer shut me right up.

"I will say this one last time. Worrying about things that may happen outside your control is only hurting you. You do not even know what would happen, yet you spend great amounts of times imagining the worst situations. While I agree that it is good to have plans in case something goes wrong, this implies one thing, and an important one: it implies you did have a plan in the first place, and you do not. You are trying to imagine bad things happening to you and base your estimation of the future on them. That is counter-productive and only leads to pain. Make yourself a plan, act according to it - only then can we start trying to expect the unexpected. Without a plan, everything is unexpected, and you are wasting your time."

I wasn't sure I understood what she meant exactly, but she had a point. I needed a plan.

"Okay," I conceded. "I don't have a plan. But I know that I need to learn Ember if I want to get anywhere, regardless of whether or not other pokemon find out about me."

"That is true, but you cannot base your ideas of how things can go wrong solely on that. You are using the fact you do not know Ember to hurt yourself. I will teach you Ember - we have a month for that, and the nurse allowed you to exercize lightly. We will not engage in any fighting or wrestling, but using moves should be enough. After all, you have been practising firebreathing for a while now and it did not seem to affect your health, despite being quite exhausting."

I nodded. I was very impatient to learn Ember, but that wasn't because I didn't want to be found out. I wanted to learn it because I was interested in pokemon battles, especially knowing that they were actually not physically dangerous and were nothing more than a sport. I felt like a whole new world was opening before me, and Ember would be my first step into it.

"Is there something else on your mind?" Topa asked after we ate and were laying on our respective pillows.

"No," I said without thinking. "Why?"

"You smell upset."

"I... what?"

"You smell upset," she repeated. "Emotions affect the way people smell, and that is true for animals and pokemon. You will learn to detect that, too."

"Oh. Yeah, that's because of hormones I suppose."

"Hormones?"

"Ugh..."

I didn't feel like trying to explain that and didn't even try. It wasn't a subject I was particularly knowledgeable about, and I didn't want to inevitably run into a question I would be unable to answer. I valued my knowledge a lot now that I was a vulpix, as it made me feel still human, for Topa despite her great intelligence did not enjoy as vast knowledge as me.

"Actually..." I said, trying to remember what could have upset me. "It's not me. It's... Agnes."

"What happened?"

"I don't know. We were waiting in the pokemon center, then Nurse Joy came to ask us to go in a room, and since that, Agnes has been acting gloomy. Something's off and I don't know what."

"Did anything unusual happen?"

"No? At least... not that I noticed. I was on her lap, she was petting me, then Nurse Joy showed up and..."

I paused for a short moment, wondering if I was right.

"And?"

"My... my tails started wagging."

Even then, two weeks after being turned into a vulpix, it felt weird to talk about my tails, muzzle or paws. I had trouble imagining them as mine.

"Do you mean you wagged your tails? That is perfectly normal, it is a reaction to show content. Is that unusual?"

"No," I corrected. "My tails started wagging. I had no control over them, and I couldn't stop them from doing that when I tried to."

"That is normal," Topa repeated. "It means you were happy to see Nurse Joy. Though... I fail to understand how that is related to Agnes."

"Well, I... my tails never wagged for Agnes. Even when she was petting me. Even when we were in the room waiting for the blood test results. It's like... I'm happier around Nurse Joy than I am around Agnes. And... I think she noticed and it hurt her."

Topa remained silent a few seconds.

"That makes sense," she agreed. "You are her pokemon. Seeing you happier with someone else... That would make her doubt her choice to keep you, would it not? She probably wonders if you would not be happier with Nurse Joy and if she made a mistake by taking you with her. Maybe... she even feels like you do not love her."

"I do love her!" I protested with all my might.

I blushed and looked away, embarrassed by my own reaction. Topa smiled.

"I believe you. But... there is a reason why you do not seem happy around Agnes. Not wagging your tails around her is not a big problem, but you two barely interact, so that is the only way she has to know whether or not you love her, and... you did not show that you do. I think that is the reason why she became upset. She envies Nurse Joy and the love you have for her."

"So she's jealous?"

"No," Topa said. "She is envious. She loves you, especially after what you have been through. However... she does not know if you do love her. All she knows is you love Nurse Joy. That has to be a pretty big hit on her, I think."

"Then all I need to do is wag my tails around her?"

"It is not so easy," Topa replied, clearly amused by my candid reaction. "There is... something. Between Agnes and you. Something that makes you upset just as much as she is. I have no idea what it may be, but it is there, and it is a wall between you and her that you need to break."

"How do I figure out what it is? I have no idea what it may be."

"Start from the beginning?" Topa suggested. "The earliest memory you have of Agnes. It could be anything. I do not think I can help you with that, but if you want me to, I will do my best."

I remained silent. I didn't think she would be able to help at all - this was between Agnes and I. Something that could have upset me? Something I resented her for? I couldn't remember anything she did to me that could have made me upset. Whatever it was, it had to be something small, a detail that I missed but somehow impacted me greatly, maybe something she herself did not remember.

I felt guilty. I had upset my trainer and I didn't even realize it. What's more, I didn't even know how. I felt like I was a terrible person, a violent treacherous evildoer that did not deserve the care of someone as loving and kind as Agnes, or the mentoring of someone like Topa. I was just a little scum, full of herself and unaware of the consequences of her actions on others. I was a terrible pet.

A terrible pet? Was that really my first thought? A pet? Not a friend?

I looked at Topa, who was busy grooming her tails. Unwilling to disturb her with my problems, I kept my thoughts to myself.

I had fallen low. I had fallen so low that I thought of myself not as a person, a fox, a vulpix or a friend, but a pet. All my early worries about having to obey orders, being restrained in my movement, and all the possibly bad things that came with being a pet seemed to have slipped off my mind. Was I now fine with being a pet? Was I really fine with that fate? What happened to my human ideals of freedom and basic rights, those very rights I thought were taken from me merely by being a pet?

"Ruby," Topa said, worried.

"Sorry," I apologized, knowing she was going to ask me what was going on. "I... I don't want to bother you with what I'm thinking right now. I know what you're going to say. It's... It's something I have to deal with myself."

"You should no let Agnes' upset feelings bring you down so much. Take some rest, sleep on it, and you will think more clearly tomorrow."

I concealed a smug smile, feeling inappropriately vain about the fact she failed to understand what was going on in my head.

"You should sleep. Now that I know you are allowed to exercize a bit, I will show you around the gardens tomorrow. And... I will start teaching you Ember."


	13. Chapter 13

Despite the prospect of finally learning Ember, I felt void of energy. When I woke up, I sighed deeply, not even bothering to open my eyes and hoping I could just sleep through the entire day. I had the feeling that nothing mattered anymore, and that no matter what I tried, it would go wrong. I didn't want to get up, get out of the room and do things. I just wanted to stay where I was, alone, my eyes closed and dreaming of the days I was still human, before my life took a turn for the worst and I became stuck in this damaged body with no family and no future. Everything I could have done felt like it would take immense amounts of effort - effort I would clearly not be able to make. I expected Topa to try to push me to do things, but for what? Trying would be useless. I knew I wouldn't be able to learn Ember. I knew I wouldn't be able to fight or wrestle, even if I were not still recovering from my injury. I was physically too weak to be any useful as a police dog. I didn't even know how to fight or detect scents. I was probably even way too young to even be useful. Why bother with anything when my entire life was clearly acting against me?

"Hey Ruby," Topa said when she noticed I was awake.

"Hi," I replied without any enthusiasm.

She didn't seem to notice and simply continued:

"I will carry you downstairs to eat, then we can go to the practice room so I can start teaching you Ember."

"I don't want to eat," I replied. "I'm not hungry."

"Oh. That is odd, but I imagine the medical exam cut through your appetite. I am hungry, though, so I will go eat then we can meet in the practice room to start practising Ember!"

I didn't reply to that. She stayed in place for a few seconds as if she was expecting a reply, but shrugged and exit the room. When she left, I sighed again, closing my eyes and trying to fall back asleep. Of course, I was wide awake and absolutely not sleepy, but I just didn't feel like doing anything.

Topa came back an abnormally long time afterwards.

"Ruby, why are you still here? I thought we were going to the practice room!" she said, sounding surprised more than disappointed.

"Huh... I don't feel like practising today. I'm tired."

That was a fat lie, and Topa understood rapidly.

"Are you sure you are alright?"

"I'm fine."

"No, you're not."

Topa walked around me, poking me regularly with her muzzle to try to get me to move, but my resolve to simply stay in place seemed to unsettle her.

"Is anything the matter?" she asked, worried. "You smell sad."

"I'm fine," I repeated, pushing her away with one of my back legs. "I feel tired. I'd like to just rest today."

"If you are tired, it might be because you are hungry. Come down and eat."

"I'm not hungry. Just let me rest."

I refused to talk after that, closing my eyes as if that gave me any shelter against her attempts at making me move. She kept insisting for a short moment, then left.

I knew she was right. I knew I was upset, but I didn't know why. All I could was hope the day would pass fast and I'd feel better the day after, even though there was no reason to. The only way I'd get better would be to get a hold of myself and make the necessary effort, but I knew I would be unable to do it. If my fate was to be depressed, then I was already accepting it.

After what felt like a few hours waiting, I heard hasty footsteps climb up the stairs and run towards Topa's room. Agnes appeared at the door, visibly worried. She switched the lights on and instantly came to me, closely followed by Melissa.

"Ruby?" she asked, kneeling by my side to pet me.

I watched her come to me in slow motion. I could see every detail of her movements, every brand of hair moving, every muscle twitching, and through the whole event, I was entirely focused on my tails. I expected them to start wagging, just like they wagged when I saw Nurse Joy. Yet, when Agnes started kneeling down, they were still immobile, once again not doing what I wanted. By the time she was in position and stretched an arm to pet me, I had lost all hope. They wouldn't move.

I tried forcing them to move, but even that seemed to be way beyond my power. All I did was let out a deep sigh and close my eyes again, ignoring the friendly hand trying to comfort me.

"What's wrong?" Melissa asked. "Is she sick?"

"No," Agnes replied almost instantly. "She's..."

She paused for a moment.

"She looks exhausted. We should let her rest. It's Sunday, she can sleep more if she wants to."

She then asked Melissa and, to my surprise, Topa, to leave the room. After they left, she sat cross-legged by my side and softly grabbed me to put me on her lap.

"Come here."

I didn't bother trying to resist. After nesting to find a comfortable position, I continued trying to sleep as Agnes was gently petting me. After a few seconds, as if to make sure no one was eavesdropping, she said:

"I know you're not tired. So, why are you sad?"

I felt strangely relieved. I was angry at her for not noticing that I was depressed, as if her saying that I was just exhausted was a betrayal, but I was happily deceived that it was just a scheme to lure Topa and Melissa into leaving us alone so I would feel more free to lay out my feelings for Agnes.

As an answer, I pushed my head onto her belly, as if that made the snuggles any more comfortable. I raised my eyes to hers only to immediately flee from them in guilt. A quick glance at my tails indicated that they were still immobile and visibly not willing to move at all.

"Oh," Agnes said, noticing my troubled glances at my hindquarters.

She was the one looking away in guilt.

"Don't worry," she said. "I'm not upset. Or... Maybe a bit. But it's not your fault. It's just that I've never seen you wag your tails since I took you home. I don't even know if you're happy. When we went back to the pokemon centre, it was the first time I had seen you joyful when Nurse Joy came to see us. I'm wondering... If I made the right decision to take you with me."

I was confused. How did she jump to that conclusion from my tails not wagging? She was right in thinking I wasn't all that happy, but that was unrelated to her. She didn't know I used to be human. Even if I didn't, the wound alone would have been enough to completely shatter my spirits. Either way, she was indeed hurt and it was partly my fault.

Trying to find a way to cheer her up, I stood on my back legs and tried to lick her face. She gently shielded herself with her hand, saying in an amused tone:

"No, Ruby, you're not allowed to lick our faces!"

I opened my eyes wide, acting surprised, then went off her lap, took a few steps away, and turned my back to her.

"Hey, don't pout."

She leaned forward and enclosed me in her arms, dragging me closer to her with her joined hands. I resisted for a few seconds then let her carry me back to her lap. When my rear hit her feet, I flipped over and landed on my back. Her smile soon turned to a very serious face upon seeing my scar.

"You know..." she started in a very serious voice. "Nevermind what I said. You were wild before I found you, right? If I didn't find you... You'd have died. Killed... And no one knows why or how. How do you live it? How does it feel to know that you escaped death by a thread?"

I shrugged, but that indifference was a lie. Even now, I wasn't too sure what to make of it. What did surviving actually mean? Was it a second chance given to me? Was it just "not my time"? And this transformation... why? And why a wounded vulpix? Did my transformation have anything to do with my death?

"I don't understand how you can be so neutral about that. Pokemon understand death, right? How can you feel nothing knowing that you've been so close to dying? When I..."

She didn't continue her sentence.

"Hey," she said, looking into the void. "Do you know why I decided to be part of the police?"

I obviously didn't. Realizing she expected an answer, I slowly moved my head to tell her.

"Lives matter," she said as if that explained anything. "My parents... they wanted me to take up their job and lead the company after their retirement. But... I'm not interested in that. All they want is to make money. I don't blame them, mind you, they just want Melissa and I to have the most comfortable life possible. I just think there's better to do."

She took a small break. I couldn't see well in her eyes because of my position, but I could hear from her voice that she was being extremely serious. I didn't like the situation much - it was too serious and too sad for me. However, I did not say anything and let her continue her story.

"I want to matter," she eventually continued. "I want to make a difference in someone's life. I want someone to look at me in the eyes and say 'thanks to you, I can wake up in the morning willing to carry on'. I want to go to bed every day knowing that I did something good for someone. When Topa's..."

She interrupted her speech again. Chuckling silently, she smiled for herself.

"See, I found you when I was jogging late at night. It was a Saturday. You crawled out of the woods on the Glossy Hills. You were... Huh, I get shivers just thinking about it. I had to do something. You know, I think anyone else would have just let you die there thinking you were doomed. But... I've seen enough to know that every life is worth trying. So I called the pokemon centre. They gave me instructions to keep you alive waiting for them. Then they transported you and put you in an operating room for hours. Do you remember all that?"

I nodded to say no.

"It was quite shocking, honestly. And gruesome. And yet... Here you are, alive and well. You just have a... permanent reminder of what you've been through. I saved you, didn't I? Even though the nurses and doctors did all the work... I have the feeling that I'm the one who enabled you to continue living. And that makes immensely happy."

Even though she said that, she didn't sound happy at all. I felt like she was about ready to cry.

"It's funny," she continued. "People don't understand death. They don't know what a life is worth. But people like us... well, and pokemon too... we know that. We've seen enough."

She put her hand through the top of her head, a bit above her eyebrows, massaging her hair.

"I have my own reminder of what a life is worth," she said, seemingly not talking to me anymore. "I promised myself to do whatever I could to help others. I'm not particularly bright, so being a doctor was out of the question for me. The police was the best choice I had. And I don't regret making it. My parents were disappointed to hear I wouldn't continue their work, but it's my choice, right? So I chose. And I chose right."

She turned her eyes to me then jolted, as if she were only now realizing I was in the same room.

"You know, I'm really happy that you survived. It gives me the feeling that I did something. I made a difference. For you. So please, look at me in the eyes and tell me you are willing to carry on."

I saw her eyes blur out. Before I could react, she grabbed me and hugged me tightly. Her back was sometimes agitated by a hidden spasm as her breathing seemed to become irregular. Unsure about what to do, I just hugged her back, and after a few seconds, I felt something wet fall onto my fur. It was the most genuine hug I could remember receiving. It was warm and comforting like nothing before. I found myself actually enjoying the moment. As we were tightly embracing each other, I realized with a smile that my tails were moving on their own.

"You seem better," Topa noticed the day after.

"I... guess," I replied, unsure exactly what to say.

"Are you ready to start learning Ember?"

I still didn't know why I felt so depressed the day before, but the time I spent with Agnes seemed to have corrected that. I was glad Topa didn't ask about what happened, or insist on the events of the Sunday, for I was definitely not willing to talk about it and it would just have annoyed me.

"Alright," she said when we got to the practice room. "You have become fairly good at throwing fire, so this should not be too hard. The first thing you need to do is create and throw a fireball. Like this."

To show me what exactly I was to aim for, she threw a fireball at the wall. I couldn't help but feel jealous of how strong and consistent her fire felt, while mine was still vacillating and probably very weak.

"To do that, you will need to be able to direct your fire inside your muzzle. Direct it towards the bottom of it first, then quickly switch to the top. The fire will roll inside and you will be able to throw a fireball."

Directing the fire inside my muzzle was quite easy, but every time I tried to change its location, I would immediately stop feeding it and the flames would dissipate inside of my mouth. After what felt like an exhausting hour of failed attempts, I whined to Topa that I couldn't do it.

"Try doing it with your muzzle open?" she asked.

I obeyed, giving the fire different directions to go at first to show that I could indeed direct it, but again, when I tried to change its direction while still creating fire, it resulted in a failure.

"You are not throwing enough of it," Topa said after carefully watching what I was doing. "That is odd. Why are you restraining from throwing large quantities of fire? Your flames are going to be less effective if you do that!"

"Well it's... it's fire. It's dangerous. I mean..."

For some reason, I had trouble explaining this instinctive restraint. I was persuaded that the human part of me was to blame, but I couldn't find any reason why. It could just be that I lacked experience and just didn't know the correct amount of fire to create, but if that was the case, there would probably be times when I would create too much of it. In fact, I was never creating too much and my flames were always too weak.

"I'll do my best," I said when I realized that I was silent.

Trying to focus more, I spent some time creating as much fire as I could before trying to move it. This time, I was faced with the opposite problem: I couldn't direct the fire I was creating. I threw a few flames before me to silently ask Topa about it.

"That is a correct amount," she said. "All you need to do is create as much fire as you can, and your flames will be stronger."

After a lot more trial and error, I finally managed to create a sufficient amount of flames and direct them inside my muzzle. Moving them from bottom to top proved to be harder, and I hadn't had a successful try by noon.

"Let us have a break," Topa said.

"Okay," I said, disappointed at myself for not succeeding.

Despite the events of the day before, Agnes' behaviour didn't seem to have changed much towards me now that I was feeling better. She seemed to be busy with her own preoccupations and didn't go out of her way to find me. She greeted me when we stumbled upon each other in a corridor, but apart from a short petting and a joyful hello, I didn't get anything out of her.

After taking a break while humans were eating, Topa and I went back to the practice room. I was still thinking about Agnes' disappointing behaviour when Topa poked me to get me back to reality.

"Are you alright?"

"Yeah, I'm fine," I said. "It's just that... When I was human I'd annoy the hell out of my pets all the time just to get them to cuddle with me for five seconds. I couldn't meet them in the house without petting them or picking them up. But... Agnes doesn't do that. It's like she doesn't even care."

"I would not say she does not care. Remember you are still recovering. She is probably just being careful."

I wasn't convinced of that, but I didn't insist and went back to practising creating a fireball. Unfortunately, I was met with the same failures as before the break and quickly gave up.

"Are you giving up again?" Topa asked.

"I don't know. I have no idea what I'm doing wrong. I can direct the flames in my mouth but I can't move them to make the fireball."

"That is most likely because you stop feeding it when trying to redirect the flames. You are saturating your muzzle before you even start making the fireball. Do not wait until you have created as much fire as you can before moving it."

"Okay."

I tried again, focusing this time on the amount of fire I was creating. Before my muzzle started overflowing with fire, I tried redirecting the flames inside of it from bottom to top. To my greatest pleasure, I felt them roll above my tongue, but I didn't react in time to throw them and they dissipated quickly. After a few more tries, I was capable of creating a ball of fire. Throwing it proved very easy, and before the day ended, I could throw big fireballs at the walls around me.

"Awesome!" Topa congratulated me. "Now, you can try changing their size, but that is not necessary. Also, it is currently taking you a certain time to create the fireballs, so you will have to practice being faster with that. Nevertheless, you have done really well. You learn fast."

I felt like I didn't deserve the compliments, but I accepted them anyway. In spite of making visible progress, I felt undermined by my obvious lack of skill in using my powers. I felt like I was less good than I should be. As young as this body may be, Topa made it clear that vulpix can learn Ember very soon in their life, but I was unable to use it. I felt like I was some kind of degenerate vulpix that wouldn't have lived very long had I not been a pet.

The day after, I woke up surprisingly early. I silently went to the practice room to be the best I could at making fireballs before Topa woke up. I didn't feel like I made any progress when Rakuen opened the door.

"Oh, hey Ruby," she said, surprised to find me there. "What are you doing here all alone? You're not allowed to exercise, you know? Were you playing on your own?"

My ears flattened on my head, pointing backwards. I crouched slightly in a display of guilt. Rakuen noticed and pointed her finger at me.

"You shouldn't!" she said, lecturing me. "Come on now, you should eat something. I forbid you from coming here without someone else to watch you, okay?"

I respectfully nodded. She came to me and stretched her arms, asking for permission to lift me. I let her do so and she carried me to the kitchen. Topa, already eating, lifted an eye when we entered. I saw her try to hide an amused smile and gave her murderous eyes.

After eating, we went to the practice room. Rakuen stared at me when I tried to leave the kitchen and I had to wait for Topa to leave first to make it obvious I was following her. This amused the ninetales very much, and once we were in the room, I roared:

"What?"

"Nothing," she said, still amused. "It seems you trust Rakuen more now."

"I don't," I pouted. "Agnes just ordered me to let her touch me."

"I did not know that," Topa lied to finish the conversation. "What were you doing here so early?"

"Trying to practice fireballs. I'm... I'm so bad at them."

"Considering you only learn how to make one yesterday, I would say you are surprisingly good."

I looked away, not willing to continue the conversation. I knew what was going to be said anyway and it was a waste of time.

"Alright," Topa said after a short silence. "Do you remember what I explained about unpowers?"

"Vaguely."

"Do you remember the way they work and how they affect pokemon?"

"Huh... They're not real. Like not real fire, right? And they just... hurt."

"Yes, that is correct. Of course, you can do basically anything with unfire that you could do with real fire. However, we tend to use the same kinds of attacks all the time. Humans have noticed those patterns and given name to those moves, as they call them. For example, Ember is just a fireball. It is generally fairly weak. You can do more, like Flamethrower, Fire Spin... Each move has its uses, of course. This naming system is very convenient."

"I... guess. Then..."

I wanted to ask about less direct moves, like Will-O-Wisp, but I wasn't sure what her reaction would be if she learnt about the pokemon games in my world. I decided to stay silent and find a way to ask stealthily later.

"Are there only direct moves? Like... You talked about... Flamethrower and Fire Spin. Do they just... directly hurt? Are there are other kinds of moves?"

"Oh, yes. Not all are meant to inflict damage directly. Some will be aimed at giving your opponent a disadvantage. For example, Confuse Ray will confuse them. I talked about Confuse Ray before, do you remember?"

"Yes, you used it to catch that burglar."

"There are two versions of it, again. It is a move affiliated to the Ghost type. Its direct effect - or real version if you prefer - is to make its target's senses confused. It is very useful to throw someone off-balance or render them unable to fight. People or pokemon affected by it will likely be unable to walk or move correctly, and they might hit themselves. The unpower version is less direct, but has similar effects. It will screw with your energy balance and, if you do not resist it well, it will stop you from using your moves and damage you when you try. For example, imagine a fireball exploding inside your muzzle when you try to cast it."

"That sounds strong."

"It is not as strong as it sounds. You can resist it and it only lasts so long - but it is useful to give you a temporary edge to try and land a more powerful move, or as a defensive manoeuvre. The difficulty with it is your target must be looking at you in the eyes when you cast it."

"So... wait. You said it's a Ghost-type. But we are Fire-type right?"

"Oh, you can use moves of types other than the one you are affiliated to! The vulpix evolution line for example is notorious for being able to use a lot of Ghost and Dark-type moves. That is the origin behind the cursed tails, remember?"

"That humans get cursed for a thousand years if they touch a ninetales' tails without its permission?"

"Yes! That is obviously not true, but some moves we can learn are nothing short of curses. You will be able to learn those moves eventually. I can at least teach you the ones I know."

"How does a pokemon learn moves?"

"You either self-teach or get taught. For example, you would be able to self-teach Flamethrower fairly easily once you can throw an Ember. On the other hand, it would be impossible for you to learn more specific moves like Confuse Ray without being taught. Parents generally teach their kids their moves, but it is possible to learn from a different pokemon. Some vulpix have psychic powers, but they need to be taught by a pokemon that can use some on their own. I do not know if you do have some - that is likely something Agnes wants to check."

"Psychic powers, huh..."

All that did match what I knew of pokemon... But I needed more explanations to see how much I could safely assume I knew.

"So how many kinds of moves are there?"

"Kinds?"

"Yes. Like... damaging moves, curses... What else is there?"

"Oh. Well, there are some moves that inflict damage over time. They are a form of indirect offence. For example, Fire Spin will surround your opponent with flames that will damage them over time if they do not find a way to get rid of them. It does not deal much damage, but it can distract them. In a similar way, Will-O-Wisp will also damage them over time. This one is different though. Unlike Fire Spin, Will-O-Wisp does not stay around the target. It will affect them directly - the term for it is burn. What it does is..."

She seemed to be thinking.

"I am not sure how to explain it. Let us say... Part of your energy will be transferred to your target and damage it. Unlike Fire Spin, there is no way to get rid of a burn."

"What is this about energies?" I asked, actually confused. "You're talking about them but I don't know what they are."

"They are the source of your powers. Your unpowers, more precisely. When you fight another pokemon, you will both chip away each other's energy. The one who has their energy depleted first will lose. This is a painful process as you may expect, and being depleted of energy sometimes results in loss of consciousness."

"That's dangerous!" I said, shocked.

"Absolutely not! Energy replenishes fairly quickly, unless it is being used. You see, when you are resting or not in a fighting situation, you passively generate some of this energy until you can hold no more. However, when fighting, your body will be focused on taking the hits and using said energy to hit in return, and you will not refill it."

"So... Is there a limit to how many times I can use a move? What decides how much of this energy I lose when I get hit by one?"

"Theoretically, there is one, but in a real fight, you will be able to use moves as much as you want. You see, you mentioned it before, but there is a type advantage matchup. It is basically a chart of how effective an energy is at dissipating another. The more effective, the more damage you will take and the more it will hurt. Of course, the raw power of the move you are hit affects that, too."

"That's complicated," I complained.

"Not all that much! You will remember that quite fast, do not worry. To come back to your earlier question, there are also defensive moves that will enhance your ability to take hits if not completely negate them."

"Pokemon battles sound like a hassle," I said, disappointed. "I expected them to be more exciting. Now it just sounds like a strategy game."

Topa seemed surprised, but did not mention it.

"Pokemon battles involve a lot of strategy! That is the role of the trainer. I am no expert on that because I have no battled much myself, but a lot of preparation goes into it. The trainer will define a strategy based on what pokemon you are fighting, and it will be your role to apply this strategy while fighting. Of course, your opponent will have their own strategy. The trainer has to figure out that strategy and a way to counter it. It is very different from actual fighting, which is a lot more guts and less brains."

"Huh... I don't want to get in a real fight. The way you're talking about it though... Pokemon battles sound so exciting."

"They are! I would love to battle more, but being an evolved pokemon, Melissa's school refuses to let her pick me for her battle lessons because I have an unfair advantage. She might ask to pick you in the future though!"

"So... How exactly am I supposed to apply the strategy? Can I not react to what my opponent is doing? How do I do that?"

"It takes to learn. How about a practical lesson?"

Having said that, she bent forward, her tails wagging in joy behind her. I could see she was excited to play with me, and I couldn't hide the fact that I myself was excited at the idea of battling.


	14. Chapter 14

"I can't," I said, lowering my head and laying my ears. "I'm not supposed to exercise. No wrestling and no battling until I'm fully healed."

Topa froze in her position for a few seconds.

"Oh," she said, sitting down. "That is a bit disappointing. Are you still allowed to practice moves?"

"Yeah, I suppose. I mean, we're not going to move much, are we?"

"No. You can practice laying down if you want."

"Meh."

I wanted to move. I wanted to exercise, to use this body of mine that I had not yet been able to fully test, but I was stuck for another two weeks, until the final health check and hopefully the permission to start moving more.

"Now that you can make a fireball," Topa said, switching the topic abruptly, "the only thing left you need to learn is how to produce the unfire energy. This should be the easiest step."

"I'm not sure about that," I complained. "It's easy for you. But for me, it's completely new."

"Breathing fire was new to you, but you learnt how to do it remarkably fast!"

I turned my head away. I wasn't happy about Topa's compliments - I felt like I didn't deserve them. If anything, I should have been able to breathe fire even faster, since my body apparently already knew how to do it. I expected it to be the same for Ember. According to Topa, the vulpix I took the body of was old enough to know the move, so I should be able to learn it rapidly.

"Alright," she said, noticing I was getting gloomy. "Do you remember what the unfire energy feels like?"

"No."

I had no clue. How would I even be able to... sense it?

"Say, Topa," I asked, interrupting her as she was getting up. "Can humans... detect... er... sense those energies?"

"The ones we use for the unpowers? No, they cannot."

"Then how would I be able to sense it?"

"You are not a human, Ruby."

She stared at me with an obvious look of disapproval on her face, visibly tired of my ramblings about how I was not a vulpix. I knew she was right, but I didn't want to admit it.

"Let me show you."

Having said that, she fired an Ember at the wall. Just like the first time she showed me one of her moves, I felt a weird kind of excitement fill me. My heart was beating a bit faster, and I was full of energy, eager to spend it. I wanted to move, jump, run or do whatever I could. I felt extremely excited, and it was a very comfortable feeling. For a short moment, it made me forget my problems about being a vulpix and my current situation got lost in oblivion. I just wanted to battle.

"Did you feel it?"

"All I feel is... excited. Just like last time."

"Focus. This excitement is normal, but do not let it steal your concentration. Here."

She fired another Ember that flew past my head and crashed against a different wall. I was too slow to react, but the sight of a massive fireball aimed right at my eye scared me and I ducked. However, when the fireball was by my eye, I could feel no heat or no air movement from it - only a weird sensation that quickly overcame my entire body. I was unable to describe it, but I felt my inner flame more excited than ever.

"I felt something," I said. "It's... it's weird."

"Notice how your inner flame has changed," Topa said calmly.

I focused on it, only to notice that the changes I felt earlier were getting more important. The inner flame didn't feel like a flame anymore. It was still radiating the same comforting warmth, but it wasn't the same warmth as one could feel from a campfire. It was... different.

Unfortunately, after a few seconds of calm, the flame came back to its previous state, and the new sensation I could feel completely vanished. I felt disappointed, and the surge of energy I had just gained disappeared.

"Aw," I sighed, unable to hide my discontent.

"You have to be able to make your own inner flame switch from this state to the other one," Topa explained. "Remember how you felt when I fired my Ember, and remember that you have control over the flame. You can do it."

"Okay," I replied, unconvinced.

As expected, my first few attempts at it completely failed. I had no idea how to control my powers, and even less how to control my inner flame which I couldn't even see or locate. It was like trying to lift an object with my mind.

"Oh!" I shouted, surprising both Topa and myself.

"What is it?"

"Do I have psychic powers? Can I lift stuff without touching it?"

"We have already discussed that! I do not know if you do, and to know that we need the assistance of a pokemon who does have psychic powers. Please focus on Ember for now."

"It's just... I was thinking," I said, trying to justify myself. "I can't control my inner flame. I don't even know where it is. It's like trying to move an object I can't see."

"You can control the inner flame! That is what you do when you breathe fire - real fire. The only difference between real fire and unfire is the state of your inner flame."

"How do I switch it to battle mode?"

"Battle mode?"

"Yeah, how I felt earlier. You know... For pokemon battles."

"Battle mode," Topa repeated with a chuckle. "I like that name."

"What's so funny?" I pouted, unhappy with her amused reaction, thinking she was making fun of me.

"Sorry. Focus on what you felt when the Ember flew past your head. Do you remember how you threw your first flame? You just imagined yourself breathing fire, and shortly after you were already doing it. It is the same here. Remember how you felt, force yourself to feel the same way, and your inner flame will adapt."

I sighed. Although she was right, I had no idea, even now, how I even breathed fire. I just... did it. I couldn't explain how. Yet... this felt strangely comforting to me. I was already using my fire breathing powers without having to focus on them. I was clearly getting better at it - and it would be easier for me to pass as a real vulpix.

However... did that mean that I was actually turning more into a vulpix than I thought? Was I losing part of myself by learning how to use these powers? What would eventually remain of my human self?

"Ruby?" Topa said, poking me with her muzzle.

"Nothing," I said, turning my head away. "I don't want to bother you with... that stuff. I'll try again. Sorry."

I focused on my inner flame again. It felt like it was crackling inside of my body. I couldn't locate it precisely, but I knew it was there and I could feel its effects. It felt... stronger than before. When I first felt its presence, it was weak and full of hesitation, but it now felt a lot more vigorous and determined. Was it a sign that my condition was improving, or was it caused by the excitement from Topa's Ember?

I could remember very well how Topa's Ember felt. I remembered how the area around my heart radiated a strong comfortable warmth and how my entire body was getting excited, making me want to jump or run. If I learnt how to do the same, I would eventually learn to battle. I remembered what I saw in the anime and I was already seeing myself battling other pokemon, jumping unrealistic heights into the air to dodge my opponent's moves before landing on the ground and throwing fire of my own. I imagined myself in an arena big like a football stadium, being cheered for by hundreds of spectators as I was swarming my opponent with dozens of small fireballs. I saw myself rushing at them while they were still dazed by the sea of fire I unleashed upon them, then jump onto them and fire one last ball directly into their chest, causing an explosion of vapour and smoke, and when the smoke was finally clearing itself, I saw my opponent laying on the ground unconscious and I saw myself standing victoriously on them. The announcer called my name and Agnes rushed to me, picking me up to congratulate me for my victory. She was smiling widely, satisfied with my performance, happy to be the winner of the match. And I was happy too, not only because I won, but also because by winning I made Agnes happy.

Coming brutally back to earth, I caught myself smiling like an idiot. The joy on Agnes' face and the euphoria of the victory all felt too good. I was looking forward to feeling those for real, after a hard battle, hopefully against an opponent better than me. I felt excited - I wanted to fight.

"Try now," Topa said, concealing a smile under her noble face.

I focused on my inner flame. It was radiating a completely new kind of energy, one unlike any I felt before. I gave myself a few seconds to properly form a cold fireball in my muzzle, and when I threw it, I was surprised to notice coming from it the same energy I felt flying past my ear.

"See?" Topa said, unable to hide her smile anymore. "You did it! You threw your first Ember!"

I should have felt proud, as proud as I was when I threw my first flame, but my body was longing for more and the only feeling I had was an overwhelming excitement.

"Try again," Topa said. "Make it bigger."

I obliged. My second Ember, while bigger than the first one, didn't last very long and vanished into thin air before hitting the wall I was aiming at.

"Why?" I asked.

"You can summon the correct energy," Topa said, "but you need to make it more consistent and more dense. You will learn that by practising, but you have already done the hardest part. You will be able to throw decent Embers by the end of the week, if not before. Congratulations!"

As my excitement faded away, my earlier thoughts about the loss of my humanity came back to me and I started feeling depressed. Was this one more step towards being a normal vulpix?

I didn't share my thoughts with Topa and asked to stop. Despite the surges of energy I felt earlier, or maybe because of them, I was exhausted and I only wanted to go sleep. Topa agreed to it, but asked me to stay awake at least until dinner.

I met with Agnes randomly in the corridors as we were going to eat. All of what happened the day before came back to me. I could remember her tears. I could remember what she said. She looked as happy as usual, and greeted me with a joyful "hey Ruby" that I failed to answer to.

She was entirely right. She had made a difference. For me at least, she had saved my life. Or... was it mine she saved? What would have happened if the vulpix I was now had not met Agnes? Would I have turned into her? Did that mean that Agnes was indirectly responsible for my transformation? What did she mean with "we have seen enough of death"? I remembered she stroked the top of her head while saying that. Did she face death in the past too? If so, when, and how?

I looked at Topa from the corner of my eyes while we were eating. She knew. All I had to do was ask and she would tell me what happened to Agnes. And yet... I had the feeling there was something more. Agnes talked about Topa during her rambling about death. There was something the ninetales was hiding from me. Would it be sensible to directly ask? If even Agnes could not continue, would Topa, who seemed to be directly implicated, agree to tell me? And what was it about the Glossy Hills? What were those hills?

Topa looked at me and smiled when she was done eating. Realizing I had been staring at her and had not eaten anything, I hurried up to finish the contents of my own dish, almost embarrassed to have been caught staring. Something had happened to Agnes and Topa, maybe the both of them together, and I had no idea what. It made me realize that, even if my situation felt pretty bad, I wasn't the only one with problems and with a busy past, and I felt ashamed of acting so selfish by throwing my own issues onto everyone as if they would be able to help me solve them, when they had issues of their own to fight.

Topa was right: by the end of the week, I was able to switch my inner fire to battle mode in the blink of an eye and to throw respectable Ember. She seemed to be very happy with my improvement, but at the same time, I could tell she was looking forward to battling, or at least wrestling, and my crippling wound was a nuisance for her. Nevertheless, she remained very careful and watched over me to make sure I wouldn't disobey Nurse Joy's orders. Agnes too was being very careful, but I felt like something changed in her behaviour towards me. She became less indifferent, and although she didn't spend her time with me since I was always in the pokemon fighting room, she did seek me out often in the evening, when she was watching TV or playing console games before going to bed, and I would happily hop on the sofa with her to cuddle for a while before we both went to sleep. The fact I spent my days in a closed room seemed to worry her a bit, but she knew Topa was with me and making sure I was not overdoing my exercise. I felt a bit jealous of Agnes' trust in Topa, but I tried my best to convince myself that she was just making sure my recovery was going well.

The rest of the family didn't seem to have noticed anything. Melissa, while clearly interested in me, stayed away, probably on Agnes' request. She greeted me when she met me, but didn't try to pet me, but I had the feeling she was making great efforts to achieve that. Her parents were still as distant as ever. I had the feeling they didn't care about me at all and only agreed to let Agnes adopt me because they didn't want to be bothered with that. In a way, I was thankful for their attitude, because it meant I didn't have to deal with them and unlike Agnes and Melissa I had no idea if they were good people or not. The father seemed to be very kind, but his wife made me uncomfortable just thinking about her. That one time we met when I was brought back from the pokemon centre, there was something in her eyes that scared me.

In the evening on Sunday, after a rough day of practice, Topa and I were laying on our respective pillow, enjoying a well-deserved rest. Agnes' words had been echoing in my head through the whole week. Not a day went by that I didn't think back about it, especially the cryptic way she talked about some past event where she or Topa had faced death. It was very clearly of utmost importance to her and marked her enough to change her views on life, but no amount of thinking could even get me close to guessing what had happened. Looking at Topa felt a bit weird: I couldn't see her for who she was anymore, and I kept trying to read through her as if there were something in her body that could give me a clue. I felt like she was wearing a massive sign that said "death has visited me" and it was all I could see.

"You changed," Topa said abruptly.

"Pardon?"

"You changed," she repeated. "Compared to last week. You do not feel happier, it is something different. As if you had... matured. You used to be constantly thinking about how you are not a vulpix and do not want to be one, complaining quite often about your current situation and overall feeling extremely depressed, but... Over the past week, you have been practising Ember diligently without a word. You seem to have more energy, or to be more motivated. You act more natural with the humans than you used to. You spend your evening cuddling with Agnes. I do not know what she told you last Sunday, but it makes me happy to see you being so much better."

"Well..."

I wasn't sure whether or not to raise the subject. This was a golden opportunity. Topa had basically brought the subject herself. I just needed to mention what Agnes said and surreptitiously inquire about the events she was referring to.

"I've been thinking," I said. "I... I feel ashamed. I've been so selfish and so childish. I've been acting like this... transformation of mine was all that mattered and I've been annoying you with it all the time. I realized that... I'm not the only one with things on her mind. When I was a kid and I got whiny about my problems or complained about people not giving me attention, my father used to say 'everyone is fighting a battle you know nothing of' and I've been completely ignoring that. I don't know if it's because I've been overwhelmed by what happened. I don't know if it's because this body is still very young and it is affecting me. All I know is I feel bad about being so selfish and not thinking about you all this time. I'm sorry."

"Well, er... That is a surprise. You have nothing to apologize for. I cannot understand your situation, but I can understand that it would be too much to deal with. Now that things are set, you seem to be doing better. I assume you had time to sort out your feelings."

"Honestly... No. I still don't know where I stand with the... the transformation. Am I a vulpix? Am I a human? Will I become a vulpix or will I remain human? And... I still feel embarrassed acting like a normal pet."

"Those will go away in time, I am sure of it. How long has it been?"

"Twenty-two days."

"Oh. I was not aware you kept a precise count."

"Well..."

I turned my head away, embarrassed.

"I promised myself I would. I... Oh god it's so stupid. I feel like... it's going to help me. I don't want to turn into a vulpix. I want to remain human, at least as much as I can, and I feel like keeping count of days will help."

"I do not know what will happen," Topa admitted. "This is the first time I or any pokemon before have faced this kind of situation."

"I promised myself that I would stop bitching and start working on getting better. The first step for that is to stop complaining and to start doing shit."

"Is that the reason why you have been so silent? You were reluctant to bestow your problems upon me?"

"Well... Yes."

"I appreciate your solicitude," she said. "However... I think there is a right middle to find between talking too much and not talking at all. I would rather you share your thoughts with me if you think I can help you. Your silence had me pretty worried, but I did not dare inquire about it because you seemed to be getting better and I thought it was part of the process."

"Sorry. I'm fine now, so if there's anything you want to know, just ask. I'll do my best to answer."

"I am curious... What did Agnes tell you?"

A shiver travelled down my spine to the tip of my tails. How much could I tell without feeling like I was spilling the beans?

"She... She got very serious and personal. She started talking about herself. And me. And..."

I felt the back of my throat clenching. My vision became blurry and my voice started hesitating.

"She said that every life matters. That had she not happened upon... upon me when I was dying, I wouldn't have survived. That anyone else would have taken me for dead and left me to agonise. But she didn't. She stayed with me, called the pokemon centre, and eventually... I survived. She said it made her happy. Really, really happy. And it really does. But... She was so sad. She said..."

My speech was interrupted by a sob. Topa stood up and laid down around me, covering me with her long tails. I knew I should probably stop speaking, but I couldn't. I felt like I wasn't in control of myself anymore.

"She said she wanted to matter. To make a difference in someone's life. She wants people to continue fighting thanks to her. It's so important to her, I could feel it. And that day... She made a difference in my life. Thanks to her, I can continue living and fighting. And she said... she's happy that I survived. Because... she made a difference. And she asked me if I was thankful for that."

"Well... are you?"

I didn't answer and simply broke down in tears.

Topa didn't insist after that and we slept together, cuddling closely. The day after, I felt full of energy again, and the breakdown the night before didn't seem to have affected me. My questions about Agnes' past were however still unanswered, and I raised the subject again while in bed.

"Topa, can I ask you a question?"

"Sure!"

"About what Agnes said... She said that... That 'people and pokemon like you and me have seen enough to know what a life is worth' and..."

I could clearly see Topa's spine shiver.

"Topa, what happened?"

I could see the debate in Topa's eyes. She was clearly not willing to tell me, but she was still considering it. After what felt like hours, she took a deep breath.

"Agnes has..." she started.

She hesitated again. What was so special about this event? Why was Topa so reluctant to talk about it?

"Let us say her encounter with you was not the first time she faced death."

"Why? Did someone she knew die? What happened?"

Topa sighed. It was obviously too late now and she couldn't back away. She had to tell me.

"When she was young... Huh, I was just a few months old at the time. Agnes was... I do not remember. Eleven? Twelve? Melissa was not very old either. Still being taken care of full time by her mother. She could not even speak yet. I was a nameless vulpix, but Agnes already loved me. She cared for me, but I was to become Melissa's pet, not hers. She did not have a pokemon. My mother was still alive at the time too. Agnes would spend her free time with us. Sir was too busy with the company to do anything, and Madam was taking care of Melissa. We were just... All three of us, a small group of outcasts, living together as we could. One day..."

She hesitated again. I could clearly remember Agnes mentioned Topa in her speech. Did something happen to her while she was still a young vulpix? Was that why Agnes had been so shocked when she saw me and why she insisted on taking me home? Was my encounter with her, on the contrary, what caused her to want to become a police officer? No, that couldn't be. She had only met me three weeks ago and she was clearly already a police student.

"What happened?" I insisted. "She mentioned you. Did something happen to you?"

Topa's heart skipped a beat. Her eyes widened so much that I could see her entire pupils.

"She mentioned me? What did she say?"

"Nothing. She just said... 'When Topa' and then stopped talking. Come on, tell me. You're scaring me. Did something happen to you?"

Topa sighed, but it was a sigh of relief.

"No, no, nothing happened to me."

"Then what? Tell me!"

"Okay, okay."

She took a deep breath.

"At the time... It was a Wednesday. That is when pokemon battling classes are in Agnes' school, and now Melissa's. She had taken me to school to practice with me. I was still a vulpix, so there was no unfairness about me being evolved. Poor Melissa, she has to use the pokemon the school lends pupils because they do not want her to battle with me. Being evolved is not always an advantage. Maybe she will ask to use you?"

I almost yelled at Topa. I couldn't take this habit of hers to constantly change the subject.

"What happened?" I roared.

"We were going back home. Sir and Madam were too busy to pick her up by car, so she decided to take a bus. Only..."

Topa hesitated again. It took her time to gather the resolve to continue, but she eventually said:

"She got hit by a bus when she crossed the road. The very bus that was supposed to take her home took her to hell instead."


	15. Chapter 15

There was a moment of silence. It was very clear to me that it was painful for Topa to tell this story, but I felt puzzled. Agnes had obviously survived the accident, and with no important consequences from what I could see, but the way Topa talked felt like she didn't. Had this accident really been that traumatizing for her?

"What happened after that?" I asked.

"The bus driver immediately called an ambulance and Agnes was taken to a hospital. I was not allowed in, of course, and I just watched as the truck took her away. The police came soon after to investigate. One of them was kind enough to drive me to the hospital Agnes had been taken to."

I couldn't even begin to imagine Topa's pain as she watched the ambulance take Agnes away, unsure whether or not she was alive, and not even being allowed to accompany her to the hospital. I had never in my life witnessed an accident, and none of my family members had ever been injured like that. I felt a bit lost and started regretting my decision to push Topa to tell me that story.

"I waited by the door of the room she was in," Topa continued. "The policeman who took me to the hospital called Agnes' parents to tell them what happened. But... They never came. Madam was busy with Melissa at home, and Sir was at his company and not answering the phone. The policeman tried to get them to come, but they did not."

Topa sighed.

"The policeman stayed with me to try to calm me down. I did not wait long, and one of the doctors came out to say that Agnes' life was not in danger. She had a bad concussion and several broken ribs, but she would survive."

"What was the result of the investigation?" I asked, hoping to change the subject a bit.

"It was an accident, of course. There were witnesses. Even I knew it was an accident. Yet... I hated the driver so much. Had I seen him again, I probably would have attacked him."

"But... wouldn't you have been killed if you did?"

"Yes. At the time, I really did not even think about it. I wanted to take revenge on that person for possibly ruining Agnes' life. Only... it took me a long time to realize that they were not directly responsible. I had trouble understanding the concept of accidents back then. Explaining that to me and allowing me to cope with Agnes' accident was the last thing my mother did before she passed away."

I didn't dare ask what happened to her mother, considering the circumstances and her state, but I was curious. Topa did say that ninetales could live outrageously long lives. Was her mother that old? Did she die from something else?

"Agnes was remarkable when she woke up," Topa continued. "I was allowed to see her quickly after. She was sitting on the bed, a big bandage on her head, and she was smiling. She was fully aware of what happened, but she was not shocked. Doctors thought she had brain damage, but she didn't. She was just smiling. She saw a psychologist, and when asked why she was smiling, she just replied that accidents happen and are nothing to be upset about. However... when she asked where her parents were and her doctor said they would not come, she completely changed. She immediately stopped smiling. She turned around in her bed and went to sleep."

I could imagine. If my parents refused to see me after I got hit by a car, I would be quite depressed too.

"The day after, she refused to take her medication. Let me die, she said. And she would repeat that to every nurse or doctor that came to see her. Let me die. She would not talk to anyone. I was lost and scared, I did not know what to do and I thought she might actually let herself die. I knew she was in a lot of pain, but she did not take her painkillers. She really did not want to live anymore."

I wanted to comment on it, but refrained. I thought it would be best to let Topa finish the story and change the subject.

"The policeman who brought me in asked if he could talk to her. Nurses were out of ideas and let him. He closed the door behind him and talk to her for hours. After he left the room, she was not smiling, but she did accept her medication and care. I have no idea what he told her, but he certainly saved her life. Maybe that is why Agnes wanted to join the police."

She stopped. It took me a moment to realize that she expected me to say something.

"She didn't mention anything like that," I said. "Just that every life matter. I suppose that's what the policeman talked about."

"Oh," Topa said, obviously disappointed not to learn more about this.

"What happened then?"

"She recovered well and was driven back home. Her parents welcomed her as if she were just coming back from school and nothing happened. For a while, I was worried she would be jealous of Melissa, but she was not. She lived on without problems and continued going to school. The difference is her parents hired a driver to get her to school and back home."

"How thoughtful," I grinned.

"Yes," she said, understanding the sarcasm. "I was angry at them for making her depressed, but even to this day, I do not understand how she went from that deep a depression to acting normally in such a short time."

I shrugged. This was beyond me as well. I had the disturbing feeling that I did not actually want to know more. That was enough.

"I have a question," Topa said abruptly.

Her gloom had completely disappeared. I could almost see her joy radiating from her body, forming a shining halo of well-being, as opposed to the grim darkness that seemed to surround her just a few minutes earlier.

"Yes?"

"It might be a bit inappropriate, so if it is, please excuse me."

"Go ahead. I'll try my best to answer."

"You have died," she announced without sugarcoating. "How did that affect you? Agnes was fairly close to death and it seems to have changed her completely. What about you? You have been through and came back. What did it do?"

"Absolutely nothing," I replied.

"Mind explaining?" she asked, clearly puzzled.

I shrugged.

"Did I really die? All I know is I was dead when I woke up. Is it accurate to say that I died? It would be accurate to say that I was dead, but... I didn't die. As in, I didn't experience my death. I was just dead. That sounds weird, am I making any sense?"

"Yes," Topa said. "You are saying that what could have changed Agnes was the accident. In your case, however, you did not experience any accident, or attack, or whatever it was that caused your wound."

"Yeah. I just... lived. Of course, I turned into a vulpix, so... If anything, that is what bothers me. Why? What do I make of it?"

"You have told me the questions that bother you," Topa replied. "I am unable to answer them, or even help you with that. It is best not to ask them at all."

"I don't understand," I said after thinking a bit.

"Pardon?"

"I know where you question comes from. People who get in accidents and nearly die... they all completely change after that experience, right? That is why you asked me that question. But me... it didn't really change anything. I think that... no one actually changes after that. They just want the experience to mean something. I mean, coming close to dying, that has to be something, right? Except it's nothing. But people want to make something out of it. They change their life, they convince themselves that they changed for the better. It's like a reset button. They can instantly make changes that would take too much effort to make gradually and they even have an excuse for it. Fact is, they know that it's a virtually worthless experience, but they don't want to admit it. That would be the same as admitting their life is worthless. Actually, the very fact that they lived makes the experience worthless. It's nothing different from breaking a leg. No one ever changes because they break a limb. Why would they change because they come close to dying but survive? Almost dying is not permanent. It's a temporary event. People don't change because of one-time problems. People never change."

"That is quite dark, what you are saying. But... I think I understand what you mean. Just because they actually survive means that the experience leaves no permanent traces, is that what you mean?"

"I suppose, yeah? Things like losing a limb would affect people greatly, but... that's because it's not fixed. I can't be resolved. Almost dying? It's resolved the very moment you wake up. Even if you remember it, it cannot affect you all that much. Because you lived."

"Is that why your own death experience seems to mean so little to you?"

"I don't know what I should make of it. I don't know if I actually died. I'm just way too confused for it to affect me at all."

Topa looked away as if she regretted asking the question. She clearly didn't like the turn the conversation had taken.

We both agreed to take a good day's rest. Although I had many more questions, I thought it would be best not to ask them, at least not yet. Agnes was on vacation, but I spent most of my day alone, resting on my pillow, occasionally visited by Topa to check on me. I tried to think about my own death and the transformation, but I still had no idea what exactly happened, and I had too many questions about the events to really be able to come to any conclusions. At the end of the day, Topa's question had actually confused me even further.

On Friday morning, Agnes softly woke me up early. We had an appointment at the pokemon centre for a final health check. As before, I was washed, but without the plastic wrap around my belly. I was more prepared, this time, and it appeared to be much easier for them and enjoyable for me. Agnes congratulated me on keeping still, and showed me my reflection on the mirror again.

Although that was what I meant to do, it would have been hard for me not to focus on the gigantic scar across my belly. I went from the bottom of my right lung to the top of my left hip and was at least half a centimetre wide across its entire length. The flesh inside of it was still pink, and I could see at different points the fibres linking the two halves together. The pale beige fur of my belly was tainted with a red and orange tint around the scar - red from the blood, and orange from the product that was used to help the healing process. It was a massive crevasse, remnant of a gaping wound. I could easily imagine how such wound would let my bowels out of my body and how much of a miracle it was that I survived.

Topa seemed to have seen the scar as well and was staring at me, her muzzle slightly ajar. I could only share her shocked expression. I had a disturbing tingling around the scar that was so uncomfortable I started moving to try to make it disappear. Agnes put me back on the floor, thinking I was struggling for that, but the strange feeling didn't disappear. It felt as if my bowels were fighting to go back outside.

"Are you alright?" Topa asked.

"Yea. I'm just being... conscious of the scar. It's very disturbing."

"We can talk about it later," she said. "You are expected in the pokemon centre. With good news, I hope!"

I didn't quite understand what she was talking about, apart from hearing that I was finally recovered, but that didn't bother me much. Agnes put me in the cage in the bed again and drove to the pokemon centre.

"Hey," nurse Joy said when she came to meet us, petting me on the head.

My tails were wagging again, but Agnes didn't seem to be upset this time. She greeted the nurse joyfully, and without waiting more, I was sent to different rooms for the medical exams, then back to waiting with Agnes. I forced my tails to wag while on her lap being petted, but I was certain that she knew I was forcing myself.

Nurse Joy came back with the results rapidly. She was smiling.

"I have good news," she said. "Ruby is pretty much completely healed. The wound has closed correctly, there is no sign of internal infection and her bowels will suffer no long-term consequences. She'll have a nasty scar, though, and fur won't grow over it, but her fur is long enough to cover the entire length of naked skin so it shouldn't be too visible. She might be very sensitive in that area, particularly to temperature changes, so be careful with it. Other than that, she's recovered remarkably well."

"That's awesome!" Agnes said, genuinely enthusiastic.

"Yes, indeed. She can start exercising again now. The second half of the year starts soon, right?"

"July. We still have two and a half weeks."

"Good. You'll need to watch over her and gradually get her back to activity. Start with just walking with her, longer every day. I recommend not to let her do any form of battling or wrestling for at least a week and to stick to walks, maybe short runs if she wants to. After that, she can start playing with Topa, but again, be very careful with her belly. Contact with water shouldn't be a problem anymore, too."

"So she'll be able to participate to classes with me?"

"Absolutely! I'll write a letter for the commissioner to let him know and give some instructions."

What did the commissioner have to do with this? Was he associated with the police school?

"Thank you very much," Agnes said, putting me on the floor.

Back to the manor, Agnes repeated the doctor's instructions to Topa, who listened very carefully, then went on to tell her parents the good news. Still sitting in the main hall, the ninetales turned to me, radiating with joy.

"Is that not fantastic? You can start exercising!"

"Heh," I said, completely void of enthusiasm. "It's good. I can start running, jumping and whatnot. I'm not stuck anymore."

"You do not look so enthusiastic. Is something the matter?"

"I feel like... my vacation is over. I'm going to police school soon, and now I'm going to have to exercise every day, probably hard, to at least be in an acceptable physical shape before classes. I feel like there won't be any leisure time. I won't be able to keep practising Ember. We might not be able to do any fighting."

"Sure we will! If anything, wrestling and eventually battling should be part of the exercising. I have to teach you as much as I can about those two anyway, and that is a perfect opportunity to do so."

"That's going to have to wait anyway. I have to just walk for now."

"That would be best, yes. Start getting used to exercising lightly first. Otherwise, you might hurt yourself."

I knew she was right, but I really wanted to go all out and start moving until my body couldn't handle it. However, I was aware of what damage I could do and decided to obey blindly.

"Do you want to visit the gardens?" Topa proposed.

"Sure!" I said with a bit more enthusiasm than I had.

From what I remembered, the gardens were huge, and apparently even had some wild animals in them. I couldn't wait to see that.

"Follow me."

She lead me to the door, opened for us by a butler who seemed to be standing there all day. It was around noon, and quite hot outside, especially with my thick coat of fur. The sky was a clear blue with sparse ghosts of cotton spread lightly here and there, as if it was welcoming the news of my healing. Odours were a lot less overwhelming to me than they had been when I was out in the central garden of the pokemon centre, and I didn't really pay attention to them. There were a lot of noises that were attracting my attention. All of it felt so much like summer that I was already imagining myself sipping on a glass of cold juice, sitting on a deckchair and absorbing the sun in a swimsuit. I could hear a lot of insects creaking, a lot of which I did not actually recognize, birds singing, rodents running in the grass, and, surprisingly, the sound of water flowing nearby.

"That is the river that goes past the house," Topa explained as if she could read my mind. "I am surprised you never heard it."

"I never paid attention," I admitted, "but now I'm curious."

"I will take you there, but not right now. Come!"

She lead me to the front gate. It was a massive metallic portal carved like an artistic sculpture. The two pillars that supported it had both a vulpix sculpture above them, starting fiercely outside. There was a guard post to the right of the portal when coming in.

"The portal is kept permanently closed," Topa explained. "It only opens when a car is coming in or out. We are generally not allowed this close to it, but I wanted to show you this."

She turned around and sat, looking proudly at the manor. From where we were standing, it looked very small, but the building was not what caught my attention. I felt like I was in a big park, maybe something one would see in a castle like the ones in France. Everything in this place had been carefully designed and laid out to be stunningly beautiful. The roads were made of thin rocks that looked so comfortable to walk in I felt disappointed that my pads had barely any sense of touch at all. Between them were patches of carefully maintained grass and sometimes water with some fountains and fish in them. The front part of the gardens was at least twice as big as the manor, if not more, but extended more to the right than to the left.

"The river is over there, east of the manor," Topa said, pointing to my right.

I couldn't quite see the water from where I was, but I could clearly hear and smell it. The park continued there, but the rocks and trees were replaced by a big field of grass. To my left were several small buildings. One was a garage for cars, and the other a swimming pool.

"We are not allowed in the water of the gardens," Topa said. "We can go to the swimming pool if a human goes there, though. Obviously we are not allowed to catch the fish."

That felt a bit disappointing, but I wasn't that fond of fish anyway and didn't really mind.

Topa lead me northwest. I realized going around the sides of the mansion that they were pentagons, which felt like a very weird design to me. One of the points of it was facing west directly, and a small wall was going from it to the solid wired fence that separated the mansion from the forest beyond. A small gap in the low wall allowed us to get through.

"This separates the front gardens from the back gardens. While the front gardens, or the _jardin_ as they call it, is maintained by professionals, the back ones are not watched that carefully and remain somewhat wild."

The difference was quite breathtaking. The small, carefully cut grass gave way to a tall, forest-like maze that was almost as tall as I. Trees were not growing in a grid, but a bit random over the entire area. Dead leaves and branches were paving the ground, sometimes making it difficult to walk.

"This is where you will be spending most of your time outside," Topa said. "You are free to do whatever you want here, except set anything on fire. You will probably often come across snakes, rodents or birds, but worry not, they will likely flee upon seeing you. Pokemon are powerful and animals know that. If you manage to catch a rodent or a bird, you can take it to the kitchen for humans to eat, and if it is not edible, you will be given it for dinner!"

"Not sure I want to do that," I said.

"Yes, I remember we had this conversation before."

Topa took me for a tour of the gardens by walking along the fence, that was not thicker and higher. This part of the property was mind-numbingly huge. It took us more than an hour to go around it at good pace. As Topa said, we met quite a big number of different animals, but they all hid when they saw us. Around midway, I accidentally stepped on a snake. The creature instantly turned over and curled up, exposing its belly to me and not moving a single scale. When we were far enough, it fled rapidly. As we were walking, the water noises became louder.

We eventually reached the river. It was fairly wide, at least wide enough for no animal to dare crossing it. The waters seemed to be pretty calm, but Topa warned me against stepping into it. Apparently, it was so deep that building a fence over it was considered useless and the water would serve as a good enough protection against wild animals and pokemon. The sound of flowing water was very calming and enjoyable, and I found myself soothed and relaxed. We laid on the sand by the water for a while to allow me to rest. I was getting tired, but refused to admit it. Not moving for almost four weeks had indeed been a big hit on me. I wasn't too sure how much this body was capable of in the first place. Was the vulpix athletic?

"You can drink the water," Topa said, lapping happily into it. "This is pure water. It comes right from the mountains. You can find no better. The humans often come here to get water, because it is that much better than the ones they get from their pipes. Taste it."

I obliged. The water was creepily cold, but past the first shock, its taste left me speechless. Never in my life had I drunk such pure and tasty water. Whoever says that water has no taste clearly has never drunk source water directly in the mountains.

"This water tastes awesome," I said, unable to contain my surprise. "I've never ever drunk anything like this."

"It does! Imagine drinking it further up in the mountains. It is colder and tastes even better."

"The mountains?"

"Yes! This mansion is built on the side of a mountain. This land you see beyond the fence is a forest. While the forest itself is not as famous as others in this area, the mountain is."

"What's so special about the mountain? And the forests?"

"I will show you. Come."

Topa lead me back inside. In the main hall, we happened upon Rakuen, who was cleaning the hall.

"Ah, don't walk here with your dirty paws!" she complained. "I just did the floor. Look at this, there's dirt everywhere now!"

Although she sounded very genuine, her gigantic smile gave it away that she was just playing with us. After cleaning each one of our paws, she petted us and let us go.

"This one is really nice," Topa said. "She has not been here for long, but she is working harder than the others."

"She's the one assigned to me", I said. "Rakuen is her name."

"Oh," Topa said. "She is the one you played with!"

I looked away, embarrassed. I still wasn't too proud of it, although Topa wanted me to be.

"Come," she said. "There is a room in the second floor called the observatory. They have a telescope there."

"I thought we weren't allowed on the second floor."

"Not in the staff rooms, but that one is always open. Just do not knock anything over."

The observatory was a regular room filled with a lot of star-related objects, including a beautiful poster of the constellations. The back of the room was one gigantic glass that allowed us to see through it very easily.

Surprisingly enough, the mansion seemed to be taller than the trees around, and allowed us to see the land around us clearly. We could see the back gardens from where we were, and the fence drawing the borders of the vast area. Going further north, the forest became denser and steeper and culminated into a small mountain, the top of which was white.

"That's odd," I said.

"What is?"

"The mountain. There's no way this is tall enough for perpetual snow to be there."

"Indeed," Topa said, surprised. "That is what the humans say as well. This mountain is a wonder. The White Hat Mountain, they call it. Scientists have tried to find the origin of the snow for years, but never figured it out. They say the temperature is not low enough for snow to remain solid on the ground. As you can see, some mountains further away are taller, but have no white hat. No one knows how this snow can exist."

"A pokemon, probably," I hazarded.

Topa shook her head in a very serious manner, denying the idea instantly.

"There is no pokemon powerful enough to maintain that much snow permanently," she said.

"I... see," I replied. "What about the forests? You mentioned a forest."

"Ah, yes. See, the forest that lies beyond our fence is nothing special, but there is a forest to the southwest of here that has been attracting attention of a lot of people, scientists included. The forest edge from here goes south a bit, then straight west, and follows very small mountains - the mountains far to the north are the tallest in the region, but the town is surrounded by hills. There is one in particular, at the edge of the town, not so far from here, that is interesting. At night, the whole forest glows a faint blue colour. Scientists think that this is caused by pokemon, but many believe that the glow is of different origin. A lot of ghost stories and rumours of evil creatures haunt those woods."

"I like that," I said. "I love paranormal stuff very much. You know, ghosts, strange creatures... Things that can't be explained with science. But... the pokemon explanation sounds plausible, right?"

"Yes," Topa said. "I believe pokemon are responsible for this. Ghost pokemon, most likely. This glow is familiar to me, I can make it happen with one of my moves."

"Oh? Show me!"

"Later," Topa said with a smile. "However... there are a lot of stories going around about those hills. Strange creatures being seen. They are said to be pale, have no feet, and float in the air. The air goes cold before they appear, and even the bravest men and pokemon flee in terror when that happens. They are generally accompanied with a disgusting smell of rot and death, and if you only see one of them, it is said that you will be taken and disappear. They supposedly have big sharp red horns that they use to tear their prey apart and eat only the bones. It is said that those who are caught then wander the woods aimlessly as a boneless stack of flesh, seeking relief from their pain."

"Huh... that's gross. I've heard a lot of creepy stories, but I didn't expect to hear of one so close to here. It's disturbing."

"They are called the Glossy Hills," Topa said in a whisper. "Said to be haunted by evil spirits."

"Glossy Hills? Agnes mentioned that. She said that... I was crawling out of them when she found me."

"Oh? That is interesting. What was she doing there?"

"Jogging. Late at night. Now that I've heard this... how can anyone go there late at night?"

"Interesting..." Topa said, without further explanations.

We stared out the window for several minutes. I walked to the right and stretched my neck, trying my best to see the hill Topa mentioned.

"Say..." I asked. "Topa, what do you think is out there? Those evil spirits... they don't sound like any pokemon I know."

"I have no clue," she admitted. "But, you know... even in this world, not everything is explained by pokemon."

I stared at where I expected the Glossy Hills to be, then at the White Hat Mountain. A shiver travelled down my spine. It wasn't a cold shiver of fear, but a warm shiver of excitement. There were mysteries to be uncovered there, and I was very determined to find out what was going on.


	16. Chapter 16

I kept thinking about the Glossy Hills and the White Hat Mountain for days after Topa mentioned them. Although I didn't bring the subject back, I was dying to actually go there and see for myself what was happening. I had no idea what the monsters in the Glossy Hills could be, but I was absolutely certain that there was actually a pokemon in the White Hat Mountain, and I wanted to see which one. Topa seemed to believe that no pokemon was strong enough to modify the weather that much, but as far as my memory served, I recalled that pokemon such as dragonair were able to change the weather at will. It seemed that Topa didn't know about that, and I felt excited at the idea of making her discover a pokemon she didn't know.

The Glossy Hills, however, scared me. In a way, I was hoping that whatever was in there was not a pokemon but an actual paranormal beast, but I didn't like the idea of going back there. According to Agnes, whatever happened to me was in those woods. If I went back there, was I at risk of being attacked again?

"How many paranormal stories are there around here?" I asked Topa on Sunday night, as we were laying on our respective pillow.

"Not that many, I think," she replied. "The ones regarding the Glossy Hills and White Hat Mountain are predominant. If there are others, I do not know them."

"That's a bit disappointing."

"Why so?" she asked, surprised.

"I love paranormal stuff," I admitted. "It's always fascinated me since I was a kid. I don't really know why. But, you see, in this world, there are pokemon everywhere, so... it's like they can explain everything that happens. But it turns out they can't and that means there's still paranormal stuff to find about, and that's really exciting. So... yeah, I'd love to hear more."

"I do not believe in them," Topa said. "The Glossy Hills can easily be explained with pokemon moves. One in particular: Will-O-Wisp. I said I would show you, I guess this is the right time to."

Without standing up, Topa's eyes started glowing in a pale mauve light. Little balls of fire appeared around her, then quickly gained the same colour. They were producing a very odd kind of light. Although it was quite powerful and lit up the entire room, looking directly at it didn't hurt my eyes at all. The wisp she created floated around me. It was warm, but not painfully hot like actual fire. I was mesmerized by the light and couldn't take my eyes off of it, until Topa made it disappear.

"Wow..." I whispered, astonished.

"That was the real version," Topa explained. "It is a very strong light that doesn't hurt to look at. Also, it cannot burn, so you can't light a fire with it. The unpower version is more offensive, though. It generates a burn in your opponent, which hurts them continually until they either find a way to get rid of it or run out of energy."

"Teach me that," I requested.

"I will," she giggled. "But not today. You need to get in better physical shape. There are other moves I want to teach you first, too."

"I don't care. I want to learn that one."

"You will in time."

I pouted, unhappy that she wouldn't teach me the move right away.

"This is, I think, what lights up the Glossy Hills at night," Topa said, ignoring my pouting.

"It's pretty. I find it interesting that humans called this Will-O-Wisp, too. In my world, the Will-o-the-wisps are paranormal stuff, too. They're supposed to be spirits that light a lantern in swamps at night. If you look at the light, you are captivated, and if you follow it, you'll fall in the swamp and drown. Scientists found out that the lights that appear in graveyards and swamps are just pockets of gas that ignite, but the legend stuck."

"That is interesting," Topa said. "Do you know more of those stories? I am enjoying those very much."

I told her as many paranormal stories as I could remember, from all corners of the world. She was listening with a candid captivation, cringing at times when the story I was telling became violent. After what felt like hours of storytelling, she interrupted me with a surprising question:

"Are spirits always evil?"

"What do you mean?"

"Of all the stories you told me, there was not a single one where the subject, ghost or creature, was not ill-intended. Why is that?"

"I have no idea," I replied. "I guess if a ghost had good intentions, it wouldn't make a good story, right? Those are meant to frighten people."

"Are they. Interesting..."

"What's interesting?"

"There are so many different stories. It seems that paranormal incidents are not uncommon back in your world, but you all chose to only remember the bad ones. Why not remember it when something nice happens? Why only keep track of the wicked?"

"I don't know," I repeated. "I never really thought about it. I enjoy the stories for what they are, I never really wondered what was behind them."

Topa remained silent for a while after my reply. While thinking back about all the stories I told, I was wondering how they would be now that I was an animal. Would spirits attack animals too? Was whatever wounded me a spirit, too? What exactly was in that forest?

There was something else coming back in my head, something that I had completely forgotten about until then. It was in this very house, and although I never really paid attention to it, it seemed obvious to me now that it was something to be investigated. The scentless door in the mansion, in the second floor, had caught my interest once again. I knew that we were not allowed around it, but I had the urge to go see it and figure out what was going on there. Unfortunately, I was aware that Topa would not help me and would likely try to stop me, so I had to convince her to come with me first.

On Monday, Agnes woke me up early in the morning. She was wearing a grey shirt and dark blue shorts. Her hair was tied in a ponytail behind her head.

"Come on, Ruby, get up! Today's the first day of your second recovery. We're going out to run!"

I protested, but Agnes didn't listen. She picked me up with a smile and brought me downstairs. She tried her best to hype me up, but I just wanted to go back to sleep.

"Alright, then," she said.

A butler brought her something, and she looked at me with a malicious grin. She had been given a leash.

I felt like my heart fell into my paws. I had been a vulpix for nearly thirty days, but it had never occurred to me that I might have to wear a leash. I didn't want to - it was humiliating and was just another way to take my freedom from me. Agnes knelt and came close to me, and I started struggling alone on the floor, expecting her to try to put that thing on me, but she didn't.

"Don't worry, I won't make you wear it" I don't want to, it's degrading and you're intelligent enough not to run away, right? Mother insisted I make you wear it, but I think I'll pass. Just pretend you wore it, okay?"

I was surprised that Agnes would disobey her mother so bluntly, but that was overshadowed by the relief of not having to be put on a leash.

"We're going to walk for a while first," Agnes said as we stepped out of the mansion. "Then, we'll run. Don't worry about where we're going - we'll stay in the forest behind the mansion. Don't stray and stay close to me. If you're too tired to continue, don't be afraid to tell me. Ready?"

I muttered an annoyed "yeah", still not happy about being forced to run, and we started walking. Once out of the mansion's jardin, we headed to our right and followed the fence until the point where it was furthest from the house. There, we simply walked straight north until we met a dirt pathway.

"We're going to start running now. Don't pay attention to the birds and follow me!"

Agnes accelerated, getting into a slow jogging pace. Although I had never run with this body before, I easily figured out how to do it. It was very easy for me to keep up with her, but my heart started racing rapidly. We followed the pathway up to a certain apparently random point, where we turned right and went deeper into the forest. We eventually met a small bridge we used to cross the river, and eventually came back the mansion.

All the time we were running, I was keeping track of how fast my heart was running. Focusing on that helped me resist the temptation of straying from Agnes to go investigate all the odours and sounds that I could detect. I felt very excited at the idea of going away to hunt all those creatures, but at the same time, I was scared of the size of this forest and of being stranded alone in it. I found myself instinctively running closer to Agnes to make sure I wouldn't lose her.

Back in the manor, Agnes congratulated me on keeping up with her. My heart was racing and my legs felt numb, but I was somewhat proud and happy of being congratulated, even though I didn't do anything special. Agnes brought me up to Topa's room so I could rest.

"How was it?" the ninetales asked when Agnes left.

"Tiring," I said, not willing to talk much about it. "It was just running. We went into the woods."

"Agnes never ran with me like that," Topa said, obviously a bit jealous.

"You don't have a massive scar on your belly."

"That is true. I want to join you two next time you go running. Can I?"

The idea of having Topa with us was somewhat exciting to me. I wasn't sure if Agnes would agree to it, but I couldn't think of any reason why she wouldn't.

"I hope so! Just come with us, there's no reason why Agnes would refuse, right?"

"Right. I hope we go further than you did. I want to go to the White Hat Mountain."

"How come?" I asked, surprised by Topa's sudden interest in it. "Didn't you say you didn't believe in the stories?"

"I am not sure anymore," she admitted. "The stories you told me are too interesting. I want to go and see with my own eyes what is happening. The Glossy Hills honestly surprise me, and I am not sure going there is a good idea considering what happened to you, but the White Hat is definitely worth checking. Maybe we can find out what is responsible for all this snow?"

"Probably a pokemon," I said, disinterested. "Dragonair can change the weather."

Topa giggled.

"What's so funny?" I asked, fussed.

"That is a myth. Dragonair cannot actually change the weather. They possess moves that can modify it around where they are fighting, but they cannot change the weather completely. If a pokemon is doing this, it must be remarkably powerful."

Topa became abruptly silent for a few seconds. Her eyes seemed to grow larger and she stared at me.

"I have a question," she said.

"Huh?" I asked, feeling like I did something wrong.

"How do you know about dragonair? How do you know about what is said of them?"

"I..."

I started feeling bad, as if I had been lying to her this whole time. How was she supposed to believe what I was about to tell her?

"You won't believe me," I said, looking away.

"I believe that you are a human turned into a pokemon and that you come from a world different from mine," she replied. "Can you really surprise me?"

"I... you know, in my world... Huh, how can I say it? There's no way you'll ever believe me."

"What are you worried about? After all I have seen and heard, I am not going to call you a liar at all. You could tell me you were a tree in your previous world, I would believe you."

"Okay then. In my world... let's just say that I know a lot about pokemon."

"How is that possible?"

"Pokemon were... invented. In my world. It's a series of games and an ani... a cartoon."

Topa seemed surprised, but not angry.

"That is crazy," she said.

"Most things are the same as here," I said. "The pokemon are the same. Vulpix, ninetales, houndour, the unpowers, pokemon centres... Of course, there are a few differences. For example, in the anime, there's no difference between a pokemon's real powers and unpowers. But... even the move names are the same. Ember, Will-O-Wisp... there are many similarities."

"That is crazy," Topa repeated. "However... that is incredibly convenient, too. That means that you already know most of what I could teach you about this world. Which, in turn, means that we can focus on learning what you do not already know - fighting, battling, and all those things. That is great!"

I was baffled. Of all the reactions I expected from Topa, she had the one that was furthest from them all.

"There are differences," I said, not sharing her enthusiasm. "And I don't know where they are. I don't know what parts of what I know are wrong."

"Well, let us see. How many pokemon were there in the games?"

"Huh... over six hundred. I don't know the exact figure."

"Six hundred? That is way more than there are in this world. I guess some of the pokemon you know do not actually exist."

"Really? That's... Oh god. How do I know what pokemon exist then?"

"This can be dangerous. Do not mention pokemon names if you are not certain they exist."

"Yeah, I guess. Does that mean that some moves don't exist either?"

"That is possible," Topa replied. "I do not know an exhaustive list of all moves pokemon can learn, but I think I could tell if a move exists here or not. Do you have any examples?"

"Huh... let me think."

What in the pokemon world that I knew would not be possible to turn real? What parts of it were clearly designed for a game?

"There's one thing," I said. "But... it's weird, because I saw... huh."

"What is it?"

"In the games, trainers can have up to six pokemon with them. And... they're not wandering around freely. They're captured in pokeballs. Essentially ball-shaped cages that are about as big as my head."

"That is barbaric," Topa said, visibly shocked. "They are stuck in those little balls for their whole life? There is no such thing here, fortunately."

"What about the symbol? I saw the symbol on the pokemon centre."

"What symbol?"

"A circle, split in two, with another circle in the middle. The top is red, the bottom is white, and the circle in the centre is black, surrounded by a slightly bigger white circle."

"Oh, that. That is not a pokeball - it is the symbol associated with pokemon. A sort of flag."

"How can it be? It's the same as the pokeballs, but pokeballs don't exist?"

Topa smiled.

"I think it is time I toldl you a story."

She sat down.

"This is a legend, so keep in mind that it is not true. It is passed down to pokemon and humans alike. It tells the origin of the human race."

"Huh?"

"Hush. Listen."

She took a deep breath.

"Pokemon existed before humans ever did," she said. "On this planet, before humans appeared, there were pokemon and animals. The pokemon were feared because of the powers they held, and they existed as the dominant species. Of course, there were a lot of different pokemon, but they all cohabited and fed only on animals. At the head of these pokemon were nine unique ones. Nowadays, humans call them legendaries, but at the time, they were nothing more than leaders. Five birds, three beasts, and the leader of all. They were responsible for the entire pokemon existence and made sure that everything went well in the areas they were assigned to. At some point, they spotted an animal species they were interested in: the humans. The pokemon back then were capable of speaking and had their own language. They taught humans how to speak, how to read and how to write. As a result, the humans became extremely intelligent and started building tools, houses, and living in society. The cohabitation worked well until humans decided that it was time to take over and be the dominant species on the planet."

Topa sighed.

"They captured and enslaved the weakest pokemon. Of course, the leaders were not happy with that, but they knew that a war between humans and pokemon would not be beneficial to this planet. Instead, they decided to abandon humans to their fate and stopped supporting them or teaching them anything. That is when the pokemon stopped using their language and decided to only pronounce their name, while being able to communicate with one another by different means. The nine leaders instructed the pokemon to be friends with the humans despite their slavery and disappeared. After they left, the humans progressed on their own and grew into the civilization we know today, but pokemon are now considered pets, when it used to be the other way around."

I wasn't sure what to say. That was a rather incredible story, but it raised a few questions.

"That is why, nowadays, pokemon consider themselves pets and are happy living under human rule. You have probably wondered why, with all the power we possess, we do not rebel against our masters, have you not? That is in our instructions. However, by forcing themselves upon us, humans have lost the ability to communicate with pokemon and will never understand how our powers work. I honestly believe that it is for the best. Powerless humans had the greed to capture and enslave creatures that were more powerful than they were - I fear what they may do if they gained our power."

"Do you mean that humans could use pokemon powers?"

"I do not know. I hope not."

"That is a crazy story," I said.

Topa smiled again.

"The pokeball, as you call it, represents those. The circle represents the planet, the upper red part the sky and the five birds, the bottom white the soil and the three beasts, and the black and white circles in the centre are for the one leader and his gifts of language and writing. As I said, however, it is a legend. No one really knows where pokemon or humans come from. As far as memory serves, we have always been living together. "

"Well... in my world, the origin of humans is very well known and documented. But... the games never talked about where pokemon come from. There are a few hints that seem to say that they came from the sky and that humans were on the Earth first, but nothing clearly set in stone."

"I see."

"However... those leaders, those legendary pokemon you speak of. There are quite a few legendaries in the game, but... many more than just five birds, three beasts and... that last one. But..."

"But?"

"One of them," I said. "At least one of them is... You see, there was a lot of hype around the pokemon games, and there even were movies that were made. The first one ever told the story of a pokemon called Mewtwo. He was created by humans when they attempted to clone another legendary, called Mew. Mewtwo had telekinetic powers so strong that he was basically invincible. Humans wanted to use it as a weapon, but he didn't like it and escaped. He wanted to wipe out humanity and leave the planet only for pokemon, but the main characters with the help of Mew battled him, and Mewtwo gave up on his war against humanity. I remember Mewtwo said one of the quotes that affected me most when I was a child. He said: I see now that the circumstances of one's birth are irrelevant: it is what you do with the gift of life that determines who you are."

"That is very wise," Topa approved. "And, I feel, very relevant to you."

"How so?"

"You were born a human, but are now living as a vulpix. That is what I have been trying to tell you: it does not matter what you are. What matters is what you do. This Mewtwo pokemon said it in a much better way, but we have the same message."

I ignored Topa's attempt at making me feel better about my transformation and continued.

"Maybe this it it. Maybe the one that you talked about is Mewtwo."

"Interesting. So you think that the legend is true and that the legendaries exist?"

"Yes. And... there's more. The second movie is about three birds. No... four. The plot is that a pokemon collector tries to capture three mythic birds: Articuno, Zapdos and Moltres. Except when he successfully captures Moltres, the balance of the world is thrown off and all sorts of weather disasters happen. The main characters, the same as the previous movie, are caught in one of them and get to the island where the three birds are. The collector eventually captures all three birds and awakens another titan, Lugia, who lives at the bottom of the sea. I don't remember exactly what happens, but everything is restored. And... in the games, there is a counterpart to Lugia. It's a bird that personifies the rainbow, called Ho-oh."

"So you think that those five birds are the legendary ones?"

"Yeah. The five you're talking about. And Articuno is an ice bird. He had an entire island covered in ice. So..."

"You think that the White Hat Mountain shelters Articuno?"

"Yes."

Topa remained silent.

"That is amazing. Our two worlds have a lot in common, so if you are right, then the legend is not a legend, and the legendary pokemon actually exist. Which means... One of them lives right behind this mansion."

"Yes," I said, getting more excited by the minute.

"Then what about the beasts? Do you know those?"

"Well, if we follow the logic, all those legendaries were created in the first two generations," I said.

"Generations?"

"Pokemon games were released in different generations, that introduced more pokemon. Articuno, Zapdos, Moltres and Mewtwo are from the first generation. Vulpix and ninetales too. Ho-oh and Lugia from the second, like houndour. But... the second generation also had three legendary beasts. Entei, Raikou and Suicune. Those could be the three beasts."

Topa repeated the names of every legendary I listed.

"Do not tell anyone about this," she said. "This is too exciting. The legendary leaders actually existing and one of them being close to us."

I had never seen Topa so excited. Although she was sitting down, I could see that she wanted to jump around.

"I want to go there even more now. We need to find a way to convince Agnes to let us go. Though..."

Topa sighed.

"It would be best if she did not come with us. That would be... bad. Everyone knows the legend. If it is true and humans knew it, there is a chance they would try to get pokemon to talk."

"They probably would, yeah."

"There is something I like in those movies," Topa said. "Every time, a human's greed is responsible for a catastrophe, and then humans and pokemon have to work together to fix it. That is a good lesson."

"They are meant to be lessons, you know. They're for kids."

"For kids? Is it not a bit violent for children?"

"Well, the games, movies and anime aren't violent at all. Pokemon powers don't actually hurt people. Like our unpowers. Also, the pokemon never get injured in a fight. It's all sort of a... light combat system, with no real danger."

"Oh, that is alright then."

Topa was shimmering with excitement. A bit of her enthusiasm was being passed to me as well. Back when I was human, Articuno was one of my favourite pokemon, and now that I was a pokemon, I had a chance to meet one. I couldn't wait to go there and see what it was all about.


	17. Chapter 17

The day after, as promised, Agnes woke me up early again to go walking. She didn't threaten me with the leash that time, but we took a different path and ran a bit. Topa didn't seem to dare ask to join us and pretended to be sleeping. It made me feel a bit sad, because I knew she was looking at us with envy from her closed eyelids, and running with her could be fun - she could even tell me if I was doing anything wrong. When we returned home, I was as exhausted as the day before, but Topa didn't seem to be willing to let me rest all day.

"We have things to do," she said. "And to plan. Take time to rest, but this afternoon, let us go to the training room."

Hearing that made my heart race, hoping she would teach me Will-O-Wisp, but I remembered her saying she wouldn't yet and knew I was in for a disappointment. I went in the living room, jumping onto the round cushion and sleeping as much as I could. The humans woke me up when they had their meal, and I reluctantly joined Topa in the pokemon practice room.

"Are you going to teach me Will-O-Wisp?" I asked directly upon seeing her, laying by a wall, waiting for me.

"No," she replied, crushing my hopes without a moment's hesitation. "You have become quite good with Ember, but it is time to learn how to properly use it."

"What do you mean?"

"There are only about two weeks left of vacation, and you have no experience in battling and fighting at all. I have two weeks to give you as much as I can."

"Huh..."

Although I was excited about battling when I found out I was a vulpix, I remembered what kind of pain I felt when Topa hit me with Ember, despite it being an ineffective move, and it scared me. Additionally, despite resting, I was still exhausted, and I wasn't sure how much fighting and battling I could do before my body gave up. I was supposed not to overexert myself, and it had only been a few days since the confirmation that I was healed.

"We will start slowly," Topa said, as if she were reading my mind, "since you are supposed to gradually get back to physical activity. No fighting and full-on battling yet, but I can teach you some things already."

"Like what?"

"The only move you know for now is Ember, and this is a move to be used from a distance. I can at least teach you how to aim and how to dodge for starters. When you are allowed more thorough physical exercise, we can start wrestling."

I wasn't sure I was looking forward to that. Remembering my cats wrestling made me nervous about wrestling with another animal myself. Although I had fun playing with them with my hands, this was completely different. Topa was much larger than me, and I had no idea how to fight and what to do.

"You seem nervous," she noticed.

I shared my concerns with her.

"Well, at some point, you will probably have wrestling lessons at the police school, or you will be in a situation where you have to fight without using your moves. I do not know much about wrestling or battling, but I want to teach you as much as I can before you start classes."

"Yeah, I know. As a wild pokemon I'm supposed to know how to fight. But... I don't know. It scares me."

"You will learn to overcome that fear. Shall we start?"

She took a few steps back and sat down.

"How does battling work in the pokemon games in your world?"

"Huh, it's like an RPG. You select the move you want to use, then a random number decides whether or not you miss, and then it's your opponent's turn."

"What is an RPG?"

"It's a type of game. It's... too complicated to explain."

"So battles happen turn by turn?"

"Yeah."

"That is highly unrealistic. How is damage calculated then?"

"I don't know the exact formula, and you probably wouldn't understand it anyway, but... pokemon are given stats. Health Points, Attack, Defense, Special Attack, Special Defense, and Speed. Speed determines who attacks first, and each move has a given power. Damage is calculated based on that power and pokemon stats."

"Why is there a difference between Special Attack and... non-Special Attack? Does the game take into account powers and unpowers?"

"What, no. There's a difference between physical and special moves. Like... Ember is special but headbutt is physical."

"That sounds weird, but I assume it is a game mechanic. What are the other game mechanics?"

"Well, some moves are meant to reduce an opponent's stats or to raise your own. I guess those don't exist in this world, heh. Also, each pokemon has a special ability. For example, vulpix has..."

I stopped for a moment, puzzled.

"In the game, vulpix can have two abilities. Either Flash Fire, which makes it immune to Fire-type moves, or Drought, which casts Sunny Day when it enters combat."

"That does not exist in this world, I fear. No pokemon is immune to Fire-type moves. If you are a Fire-type yourself, they will be less effective, but you will still be hurt by them. Do you remember the Ember I threw at you?"

I shivered, remembering the pain that it caused.

"In this world, I suppose there is an equivalent to health points..." Topa said. "I think I already told you."

"Yeah, I remember. So... what are we going to do?"

"Well, you need to learn to aim and dodge. You can throw an Ember reasonably fast now, but that does not matter if you cannot hit your opponent."

"Can I learn to make my Ember faster?"

"Not really. The speed of your projectiles is unfortunately not controlled by you. It depends mostly on what kind of projectile they are."

"What about Ember then?"

"It is fairly slow, for a projectile, but still difficult to dodge. In general, Fire-type moves are slow."

"Doesn't that mean I'm at a disadvantage?"

"Not quite. In long-ranged fights, you probably are, but in closer range, you are not. Fire-type moves hit hard. You also have a whole array of offensive and defensive moves that you can use at mid and close range, while other types do not."

"Like what?"

"Fire Spin or Will-O-Wisp for somewhat defensive moves, Fire Blast and Flamethrower at midrange, Fire Fang or Flame Wheel at close range. Also, remember that the majority of Fire-type moves have the ability to Burn your opponent, and that is a big advantage. It damages them and slows them down, which gives you an edge at midrange and in close combat again. On the other hand, the Grass type for example has fast but weak projectiles, and some close-range moves, but absolutely nothing for midrange combat."

"Am I supposed to know all that?"

"Not really. That is more your trainer's job. They are supposed to make the strategies and figure out the strengths and weaknesses of the opponents. If you are fighting a Grass-type for example, you will want to stay at midrange, since that is where they are weakest. You can also fight in close combat, but that is more of a gamble, because both Fire and Grass have tools at that range. However, as a vulpix, you can only learn Flame Charge, which is used to move faster, either to get away or go to close range, and have few tools there. It would be best to stay back and use ranged attacks. You can learn Protect, which is great for that purpose."

I felt excited. All Topa was saying about pokemon battles made me want to try my luck at one, especially if it involved that much strategic planning. I imagined them to be more like in the anime, with pokemon trying to throw attacks as fast as they could, but this seemed so much more interesting I couldn't wait to at least see one. However, at the same time, I felt a bit worried that my knowledge of the pokemon games would betray me. In the games, the effect of Burn was to halve physical damage dealt by the burnt pokemon, but in this world, it slowed them down. What else did I know that I actually didn't?

"So what are we going to do?" I asked, excited for the training Topa wanted to help me with.

"I will start shooting Ember at you and you will have to dodge them."

"Are you sure it's a good idea? I'm supposed not to exercise too much."

"This should not be too exhausting. It might hurt a lot if you get hit too much, but dodging should not take much energy. We can have breaks regularly if you want."

She stood up.

"Are you ready?"

I wasn't quite ready, and I had no idea how I was supposed to dodge an incoming projectile, but I nodded, thinking I could just figure something out on the fly.

She bent forward, waited a short moment, then threw an Ember at me. The moment the Ember appeared, I felt my inner flame get excited again, but the fireball was too fast for me to dodge and hit me in the chest. Again, I felt this transient extremely sharp pain that seemed to surround my body. Although it was less painful than I remembered, the shock still left me dazed for a short moment.

"You call that fairly slow?" I cringed.

"Well, yes. There are a lot of moves that are faster."

"There's no way I can dodge this. I didn't even see it coming."

Topa moved back further, obviously not flustered by my reaction.

"Here it comes."

She fired another Ember. I reacted surprisingly fast and crouched, hoping to dodge, but the move was directed at my chest again and hit me in the head instead.

"Ow..." I complained, shivering from the pain.

"Crouching will not help much, I fear," Topa said, staying back. "You need to move from your current position. Being static will make you lose."

I groaned. As a human, on two legs, I could easily have sidestepped the Ember, but now that I was on all fours, how was I supposed to sidestep without hitting my own legs and falling over?

"Hold on," I said. "How did I react so fast?"

"You are a fox," Topa said. "You are probably faster than you were as a human. Make good use of it, although it might require some adaptation."

"Okay," I said, determined to dodge the next one.

Topa fired the Ember without warning me. No sooner had she thrown the fireball than I jumped on one side, effectively dodging the attack aimed at me.

"Good!" Topa said, visibly happy. "Let us try again. I will fire more rapidly now."

She fired another Ember that I had no trouble dodging. As soon as I dodged it, she fired another one that I didn't see coming. I rolled on my side in a panicked attempt at dodging, but the fireball she threw next hit me while I was still trying to get up.

"Let us have a break," Topa proposed, noticing I was panting.

After the break, she had me fire Embers at her and try to hit me despite her efforts to dodge. She was able to move much faster than I could shoot Embers and I didn't even come close to hitting her, but there was something hypnotizing in her movements. While I felt extremely bulky and rough in the way I jumped and rolled to dodge her attacks, she moved with so much grace it looked like she was just dancing. After a few minutes, I was so mesmerized that I wasn't paying any attention to where I was firing my Embers anymore. I felt deeply jealous of her for being so pretty.

"I'm getting tired," I said after over an hour of practice. "I don't know if I can continue shooting Embers."

I felt like I was short on breath, but the feeling was located in my inner flame instead of my lungs. Creating and firing Embers was getting exhausting.

"That is normal," Topa said. "I think we should stop for the day. As you practice, you will be able to last longer in a fight. You have done well today. I look forward to practising tomorrow."

These little games lasted almost a week. In the morning, Agnes woke me up to go walk, and in the afternoon, I spent my time with Topa firing Embers at each other. Topa was surprised to see how fast I was improving: our training sessions could last several hours by the end of the week, and the runs with Agnes became less tiring. On Sunday, after returning from our daily job in the forest, Agnes called Nurse Joy to tell her of my progress.

"She's making amazing progress," she said. "She keeps up with me very easily. She doesn't even seem to tire anymore. I've never seen her in such good mood, too."

I couldn't hear what Nurse Joy was saying, but I could only assume it was good news. Agnes came back to me, excited, unaware of my spying on her phone conversation.

"Good news!" she turned to me after hanging up. "Nurse Joy said you should be able to exercise properly now. You are free to play with Topa or me whenever you want! I'll instruct the servants to give you free access to the gardens. You're finally healed!"

"We can step up training, then," Topa said when she heard the news.

"I want to run," I replied. "I want to run and jump and swim. I want to see what this body is capable of."

"I do not think swimming is a good idea, but we can go outside."

She lead me to the gardens. It was around noon, and the sun was high in the sky, making the day fairly hot, but I didn't care. As soon as I got a chance to, I started running from one end of the gardens to the other, Topa sitting in the middle and watching me, amused. I was astonished at how fast I could run, especially since I was quite small and even running at a normal human speed would feel fast to me. I could jump about twice my height, but not very far, and landing on the hard dirt despite the tall grass was fairly painful on my pads. After I was done jumping and running around, Topa asked me if I wanted to wrestle.

"Bad idea," I said. "You're going to wreck me."

"The point is not to be fighting," she said, "but to give you an idea of what to do. Have you ever had a pet fox? Do you know how us foxes fight?"

"Huh... no. I've played with my cats so I have an idea of how a cat fights, but I don't know how foxes do."

She stood up from her laying position, stretching to wake her muscles.

"There is one thing you need to know, although you might not need it. If you are in a situation where you have to resort to fighting, you will need to make yourself look impressive. Scare your opponent so that they forget about fighting you. Do you know how to growl and hiss?"

"Huh... let me try."

I had no trouble producing a growling sound, but I had absolutely no clue how to hiss. I wasn't even aware foxes could hiss.

"Lay your ears," Topa said when I was trying to growl. "Bump your back, raise your tails, and lower your head. You want to look as big as you can and have your head low. It makes your neck less easy of a target. You can spread your tails more, so do that. Open your muzzle and let your opponent see your fangs."

I tried my best to follow her directions, but I felt silly. I knew I was more cute than impressive, even with the growling, and I felt embarrassed to be acting that way.

"Good!" Topa said, visibly satisfied. "You have good form! If your opponent still tries to walk towards you, you can hiss at them to scare them."

Topa hissed a couple times to show me what it sounded like, scaring me into a huddled up position. It sounded nothing like a cat hiss - it was more like she was slapping the roof of her mouth with her tongue repeatedly.

"Did I scare you? Sorry."

I looked away, embarrassed.

"It's funny," I said. "I never realized that before, but now that I think of it, humans do that too."

"Do what?"

"The whole... trying to impress the opponent before a fight thing. Mostly men, though. They stick out their chest, tense up their muscles, act tough and challenge the other with their eyes, they get so close to each other that their noses basically touch to show they're not scared. Generally they also insult and try to provoke the other."

"That sounds normal," Topa said. "It is their equivalent to our bumping our back and spreading our tails. All animals do that. No one likes to fight, so if one of the two involved decide they are too scared, it is in everyone's interest. The insulting and provoking is just our equivalent to growling and hissing."

"It's funny," I repeated. "I thought it was just... animal behaviour. That humans were above that. But... they still do it and they don't even realize it."

I blushed and looked at the ninetales from the corner of my eyes when I realized that I was being condescending on her. Topa didn't seem to hold it against me and quickly told me how to hiss and how to properly bark. After a few attempts, Agnes came to check on us, probably alerted by the barks, but upon realizing that we were just playing, she smiled and went back inside.

"Do not bark inside, unless there is a danger and you need to wake the humans up. Generally, that will not happen. There are the guards to help us."

"Will I have to help with burglars too now?"

"Possibly - I do not know. I honestly do not feel confident in you chasing down burglars, as I fear you may get hurt, but if you are interested, you are welcome to come with me. Please just stay back and observe."

"I'd rather sleep, honestly."

"Understandable," Topa smiled. "Are you interested in wrestling now?"

"I... I don't know. It sounds a bit scary."

"Let us go back inside. I will explain to you what to do."

On our way to the practice room, we met Agnes, who asked me with a smile if I was enjoying my first day of actual freedom. I didn't reply, unsure of what my answer would be, and she just petted me and let me free to continue what I was doing.

"We do not fight like cats at all," she said. "Cats fight a lot with their legs, especially the back ones, but your legs are weak and your claws are dull. Your teeth are your primary weapon. If needed, you can scratch with your front paws too, but keep your back legs sturdy. If you get grounded, you lost."

"What do I do if I get pinned then?"

"You need to get away as soon as possible. You are very slender, so it should be possible in most cases. When attacking, aim for the neck and shoulders."

She poked me with her muzzle on the areas I was supposed to attack.

"If you are trying to kill your opponent, bite the vein that goes in the throat. It is a big one and they will quickly bleed to death."

"It's called the jugular," I said. "It carries blood to the head and the brain."

"I did not know it had a name. Interesting."

"And for games?"

"Pardon?"

"When I'm just wrestling for fun, not trying to kill. What do I do?"

"Oh. These usually go on until one gives up. Avoid biting hard, you are not supposed to injure your friend. Try to pin them on the ground. Do you want to try?"

Topa seemed excited at the idea of wrestling with me, but I was scared. She was almost twice as big as I, and there was no way I would stand a chance when wrestling.

"I'll pass," I said, confident that it wouldn't go well for me.

"Oh," she replied, obviously disappointed. "Alright, let us continue with Ember then. Are you rested?"

"I guess. Let's go."

I was actually still quite tired, but I didn't want her to pity me or think I couldn't handle some effort.

She spent another hour firing Ember at me at a stable pace while I was trying to dodge them. My success rate was disappointingly low, but I refused to give up. By the end of the day, I had received too many Embers and had trouble standing up.

"I think we should stop for the day," Topa said after I failed to get back on my paws. "If you get hit more, you might faint. I fear we have done too much."

"Nah, I'm fine. Just tired."

Topa stared at me, clearly not believing me.

"There is time before we have to go eat," she said, laying down next to me. "How is your experience with battling so far?"

"It's... fun. I mean, it hurts like hell, but it's really fun. And tiring. I can see why pokemon enjoy this."

"It might just get better once you are in a real battle," Topa said. "All we are doing for now is firing and dodging Ember. When it gets more complicated and you have Agnes by your side, you will probably enjoy it even more."

"I'm kind of looking forward to that," I admitted.

"Kind of?"

"It scares me. I don't want to... lose and disappoint her."

"Why would she be disappointed that you lost?" Topa asked, genuinely confused.

I couldn't understand how she could not associate a loss with disappointment, but I didn't try to insist. Thinking back about Agnes made me think about the Glossy Hills, and of course, the White Hat Mountain...

"How are we going to get up there?" I asked.

"Where?"

"The White Hat."

"I have no idea. As far as I know, the snowy part is not restricted of access, but no one goes there, even scientists. They want to preserve it, so there is a tacit agreement among humans not to visit it. Even tourists respect that. Nothing stops us from going there, really, but we need to find a way to let Agnes know what we want."

"Is Agnes not interested in it?"

"I think not. She has never shown any signs of it, at least. She is very interested in the Glossy Hills, however. That might be because of you. She has not gone back there since she found you though."

"Maybe she's scared?"

"That is possible. Now that you are her pokemon, she probably does not want to expose you to whatever attacked you. It is a wise decision."

"Whatever. I'm not sure I want to go there myself anyway. But..."

"We will need to find a way to go to the mountain. You will be busy with police school soon, but I have free time. I will try to think of something. For now, we need to forget about it and focus on what is coming to us."

I felt warm. The idea that Topa would help me uncover the mystery behind the mountain was reassuring, even though the prospect of going to school as a pokemon scared me, but I didn't want to abandon the idea of visiting the White Hat. Nevertheless, I agreed with Topa when she said that it would be best to set that aside for now.

We spent the rest of our vacation practising Ember together. Topa had apparently forgotten about her plans to ask Agnes if she could run with us, and the morning jogs became a bit tedious because of how repetitive they were. I could tell that Agnes wasn't enjoying them as much as she said she did, but I admired her willpower and her discipline, and I did my best to follow her. In the afternoon, after resting for a few hours, Topa and I spent our time in the practice room. The static practice soon turned into a game, and we were trying our best to hit each other, running in circles around the room, rolling and jumping to dodge. Topa proved to be significantly better than me at it, and although I never succeeded in hitting her with one of my own Ember, I was enjoying the practice a lot more than I had told her. I had become quite good with the only move I knew, much to the ninetales' surprise, and she promised that she would try teaching me more moves once I was set in school.

The Monday that came was the second of July, and the end of our vacation. It was, if my count was correct, the start of my forty-fourth day as a vulpix, and I was surprised by how much I had learnt in so little time. For the first time since I woke up in this body, I felt confident in myself and my abilities. Although I still wasn't quire sure where I stood in terms of happiness, I was definitely capable of having fun with Topa, and I enjoyed running and what little battling I did very much. I wasn't quite confident in interacting with other pokemon or humans yet, but Topa kept repeating that it wouldn't be a problem, and I was inclined to believe her. When Agnes woke me up, I was shivering with a mix of excitement and fear. I ate as much as I could, then simply stood in the main hall, waiting impatiently for her to come. When the time finally came, she petted me on the head and lead me to the car. I was allowed on the front seat, without a cage, but still fastened with the security belt, and Agnes took the driver's seat. When the car started and passed the massive gate, I turned back to watch the manor slowly shrink away. I felt like a new page of my new life had just been finished, and I was turning to a new one: police school.


	18. Chapter 18

The drive to the school was longer than what I remembered for the pokemon centre, although we took globally the same direction. Again, I was sitting on the front seat without a cage, but with a fastened seatbelt, next to Agnes who was driving. She looked quite happy, whistling softly a song that I didn't recognize. I wasn't sure what she was so happy about, but it seemed that she enjoyed her classes, which was quite important for her. Looking at her while she was focusing on the road ahead, I couldn't help but think about the accident Topa told me about. How was she not scared of cars after that? How did she feel now, several years later, after she was so violently betrayed by her very parents? Although she looked perfectly fine, even with her relations with her traitors, I was certain that deep down she was grieving. Her speech to me about the value of all lives was proof of it. Her accident didn't seem to have shocked her much if at all, but the fact her parents didn't come see her in the hospital had shaken her, probably into thinking that her life was not worth living. However, the policeman that took Topa to the hospital apparently convinced her otherwise, and she took that as a life lesson, applying it to everything and everyone... which lead to her saving my life.

The car stopped. I couldn't see much from where I was, but there was a group of massive buildings ahead. We were stopped before an automatic barrier, coloured red and white, that blocked us from going further. To our left was a small building, very similar to the watch tower back at the manor.

"Hey Agnes," a male voice said. "Coming in early?"

"Bit of paperwork to do, and the doctor will want to see her," Agnes said.

She poked me to ask me to look towards her. There was a man in a police uniform in the small building.

"Oh. Is that yours?"

"Yes. She will be my partner."

"About time you found one!" the man chuckled. "A vulpix, heh. You're going to stand out."

"As if I didn't already stand out before," Agnes sighed. "Can you let me in now?"

"Oh, sorry."

The man disappeared, and the barrier rotated shortly after to let us pass. I had been pretty calm up to this point, but no sooner had we passed the watcher's building than I was struck by a wave of panic that I struggled to control. We were inside the police school, and I would soon meet other people, and more importantly other pokemon. I still had no idea how I was supposed to behave around them, and what they would be like. Agnes didn't seem to realize how scared I was, and I did my best not to show it.

After driving straight ahead for a few seconds, Agnes parked her car and allowed me out. The school was a lot bigger than I imagined, at least a lot bigger than the university I went to when I was human. Amazed by its size, I didn't notice Agnes had started walking, and when I did realize, I hopped, hurrying to join her. She walked next to a building, then turned left, and after walking for a few more minutes, we ended up in front of a very large single-floored structure. There were two doors directly ahead of us.

"The building we just passed is a class building," Agnes explained. "That is where I spent most of the first half of the year. We had classes about laws and lots of theory about all kinds of stuff, but it wasn't very interesting."

She pointed to her left, showing a very long but not very tall edifice painted in a dark blue shade.

"These are the pools. There are two pools: one for humans on the left and one for pokemon on the right. We have compulsory swimming classes and quite a few other physical ones. Most of them are in those buildings - behind the pools are all kinds of specific terrain practice areas. Most of my class considers them a bother, but I like them more than the theory classes. To the right out there is the stadium. This is where pokemon battles are taught. The building on our right and behind us is another big classroom, but this one's for more practical things, like exercises and simulations. There's also the restaurant there where I'll be eating at noon."

She looked at the building in front of us.

"The door on the left leads to the administrative buildings, and the one on the right to the doctor's office. It's quite big, it's like a mini hospital. Of course, there's a pokemon centre too. It's kind of needed, with all the physical activity around here, injuries are bound to happen. There's a shooting range behind this, but you can't see it from here. It's kind of far."

I looked around me, wondering why I couldn't see anyone.

"It's 9am right now," Agnes said as if she could read my mind. "Everyone's in class. For first years, classes only resume this afternoon, so I took the opportunity to come ahead of time and deal with a bit of paperwork."

She opened the door to the administration and invited me to step in. It looked very much like what I expected of a police station, with lots of relatively small booths separated by glass panes, and an army of policemen in uniform in them. They didn't seem to notice us at all, and we crossed the corridor to reach its end. The only booth that was not visually accessible was standing there, with the word "director" proudly painted on the wooden door. Agnes knocked three times, then waited.

"Come in," a male voice said.

Agnes opened the door, asking me to get in first, then joined me and closed it. The director's office was quite large, but the walls were hidden behind a ridiculous amount of metal cupboards. In the wall in front of me were two large windows wide open. There was a circular table in the middle of the room with eight chairs around it. It was currently empty, but I could only assume that it was where meetings happened. To the left of us was an L-shaped desk, busy with all sorts of papers and two computers. Sitting at it was a fairly old man whom I recognized to be the police commissioner shown on TV. His absol was laying on a carpet apparently specially designed for him and seemed to be sleeping.

"Hey Agnes," the director said.

"Hello sir," Agnes replied.

I expected her to reply with the typical police gesture of pointing one's hand to one's head, but she didn't. She was quite laid back and casual, which surprised me. I expected to be caught in an army-like discipline training, but so far, it all seemed like a regular school.

"You're in early," he said. "Let me guess why."

Standing up from his chair, he looked directly at me.

"Hello there," he said in a friendly tone.

I was petrified. I had absolutely no idea how to behave, especially not in front of a high-ranked official. In a stupid submissive reflex, I instantly sat down, unable to look at the man in the eyes.

"You don't have to sit," he said. "Come here."

Agnes crouched to pet me to try to comfort me, and I reluctantly took a few steps towards the commissioner. After I reached him, he crouched as well, and petted me on the head. His petting felt a lot better than any I had received before, and I felt comforted enough to push my head into his hand to ask for more. To my disappointment, he stopped, and sat back at his desk. Without a word, he handed a few sheets of paper to Agnes, who got busy filling them.

"We'll talk later," he said, his eyes pointed to me.

The absol, nested in a corner of his carpet, raised his head and turned it to me. For a few seconds, he started at me, then went back to sleep. I felt like his eyes had penetrated through my fur and my skin. I stared at him with an eerie feeling until Agnes was done with the paperwork.

"Stop by the doctor," the director advised. "I suppose she's recovered by now, but he'll want to have a look at her. She might need adjustments due to her wounds, but I'm not sure. He knows hell of a lot more than me anyway, so go ask him."

"Very well," Agnes replied in a more formal way than she had greeted the commissioner.

"Oh," he said, as if he had forgotten something. "What did you name her?"

"Ruby", Agnes replied.

"Ruby," the director repeated. "Meaningful name. I hope to hear back from you two soon."

"I will visit again," Agnes promised before we left.

When we were outside, Agnes lifted me to cuddle gently.

"Are you alright?" she inquired. "You looked very nervous. You have nothing to fear, everyone here is your friend. Some more than others, but no one will hurt you. And if anyone tries to, you can be sure I'll eat them raw."

She said that with a smile, but the tone of her voice couldn't lie. I had the disturbing feeling that she would indeed eat anyone who tried to hurt me and promised myself not to get in trouble.

In the hospital building, we went straight to the doctor's office again. One of the nurses asked us to wait a bit because he was busy, and we sat by the door. This reminded me very much of the final health check at the pokemon centre, but I felt uncomfortable. There would be no Nurse Joy to comfort me.

After at least an hour, the door to the office opened, and we were greeted by a surprisingly young-looking man.

"Hey Agnes," he said, still completely informal. "Come in, come in. Ilma isn't around, sorry. Sit here."

The doctor's office looked exactly like any doctor office back in my world, with the same desk, blue bed with white sheets, and all the medical equipment one would expect. There was also quite a lot of equipment I didn't know, probably used for pokemon care.

"Hello, you," the director said when I walked by him.

I felt strangely calm around him, as if I knew that he was friendly. While I was quite scared of the director and especially his absol, I would let this doctor do anything to me anytime. His odour was by far the friendliest I had ever smelled.

"Her name is Ruby", Agnes said. "She is..."

"The one that shown on the news, I know. The director told me you planned on taking her as your partner. I've already requested all her medical files from Nurse Joy."

The doctor grabbed a folder on his desk and opened it, skimming through it.

"Would you jump on the bed, please?" he asked without look at me.

The bed was taller than me. Unsure I would be able to jump on it, and scared of doing something wrong and attracting suspicion, I remained in place, nervous.

"What's wrong?" Agnes asked.

"Put her on, please," the doctor asked.

Agnes lifted me and put me on the bed, where I sat down.

"When did she start exercising again?"

"About two weeks ago. She spends her time with Topa, my sister's ninetales. I don't know what they do, I never dared bother them. They seem to have a lot of fun though.

"Good, good. Two weeks is a bit short to fully recover from so much inactivity. If she didn't jump on the bed, she probably doesn't feel confident enough to do it. Physical training might be a little rough on her for the first few weeks. Also..."

He looked at me, putting his hand on my head.

"She's young. Very young. Maybe too young. By far the youngest pokemon we've admitted here."

"Is it not good? The younger they started, the better they learn, right?"

"Yes, that is true. But she's not physically mature yet. Probably not even fertile. This is going to be a huge disadvantage against other pokemon. Everyone here is an adult, she'll be the only child. By... quite a few years."

"We'll be fine," Agnes said with confidence.

"I don't doubt it," the doctor replied with a smile. "However, you need to keep that in mind during classes."

"I will."

The doctor looked through the file, then closed it and carelessly threw it on his desk.

"I have no worries about any of our classes," he said. "She can participate in all of them. However... I think I'll request the training be a bit less rough for her."

I protested, yelling at the doctor in an angry voice. He turned around, surprised.

"You don't want that?"

I pouted to show my discontempt.

"So you want to have the same training as the others? You're probably weaker than they are physically, I'm not sure it's a good idea."

I growled, challenging him to a duel of looks. He smiled.

"I like your spirit. Alright, have it your way."

He petted me on the head before asking me to jump down. I obeyed, landing clumsily, and went back to Agnes.

"I want to see you both again in a week, see how she's doing with classes. She might get a lot of attention if word spreads that she's the one who survived the attack. I'll do what I can to prevent that from happening. I don't think she wants any more attention."

"Thank you," Agnes said.

After we both climbed into the car, Agnes took time to pet me again.

"How are you feeling? You've met the director and the doctor, and now you're officially my partner! I'm glad to see that you weren't too nervous. We have yet to meet our classmates though. There will be a lot of people and pokemon. Stay with me, alright?"

The prospect of meeting so many strangers was appalling at best, but I knew I didn't have a choice. As long as I was able to avoid interacting with them, I hoped I would be fine. I could blame any irregularities on my body's age or on the fact it used to be wild before Agnes saved it.

"Back already?" Topa asked when I went back to my pillow to rest.

"There are no classes. We just went for... administrative work. I was seen by the doctor, too."

I wanted to mention the absol and how much I was scared of him, but refrained. It was stupid of me to have that reaction, especially considering he was the pokemon of a police commissioner. I had nothing to fear from him.

"So you are starting classes this afternoon?"

"I think so?" I asked, unsure of the answer. "Chances are there will just be a speech to explain what the semester will be about and a meeting with each teacher so they can give their expectations."

"Oh. That sounds like a good idea. How are you feeling? Do you feel ready to meet other pokemon?"

"No," I said, conscious that trying to hide my dread was futile. "I don't even know what kind of pokemon there will be."

"It is a police school," Topa said, "so the pokemon used there are fairly limited. There are very strict criteria for a pokemon to be eligible as a police partner. I was with Agnes when she reviewed them to try and choose a partner. That was long before she found you."

"Tell me more?"

"Let me try to remember. How strong the pokemon is obviously matters, especially its evolution line. There was something about how common the pokemon is, too - more common pokemon were obviously favoured. Oh, the pokemon obviously had to be able to learn moves that would help with a policeman's work, typically incapacitating ones that can be used on people. Their physical abilities were considered too, but I cannot remember how exactly. And... I am forgetting something."

She took a short break.

"Their behaviour! Behaviour was a big factor. They want obedient, loyal pokemon. Typically dogs. Foxes work too, but they are less popular because their behaviour is not as flawless."

"So... what about me? What does vulpix have that makes it a good police pokemon?"

"Vulpix is a prime candidate, I would say! Ninetales is a very strong pokemon in a fight, although not so much physically, but we have very good behaviour by their criteria. Obedient, loyal, rather courageous. We also have a few interesting moves like Fire Spin, Confuse Ray or Will-O-Wisp. And for the ones who have some, psychic abilities are an extremely important asset, not just for Hypnosis. Also, your sense of smell is one of the best in the entire animal kingdom!"

"It is?"

"Yes!"

"I never realized."

"You will learn to use it in time," Topa said, putting her head above mine to comfort me.

"So then, what pokemon should I expect to meet?"

"I think... A whole lot of growlithe, houndour and poochyena. Some eevee, too. Probably a few other that I do not remember, but you will likely not see any other vulpix."

"Why? If vulpix is so good for police, why not?"

"Well... vulpix is an excessively rare pokemon around here. You are going to stand out. Eevee is quite rare in the wild, but very common in households. They are mostly interesting for their evolutions and were domesticated very early in human history. Vulpix, however, is not native to these lands, so finding wild ones is exceedingly rare. Humans can buy them from other countries, but they are expensive."

"How did you come to be in this family?"

"I was born here. My mother had already been this family's pokemon for quite a long time."

"I see..."

This made me feel uneasy. When Agnes found me, I was crawling out of a forest, and was supposedly wild, and that made me stand out even more. It also meant that I would gather attention just for being a vulpix. What would I do if other pokemon started asking me questions about my life in the wild? How would I answer?

Agnes interrupted us with a smile, saying that it was time to go. She was obviously excited, but I couldn't share her enthusiasm.

Despite my growing anxiety, I enjoyed the trip to school a lot more than the one in the morning. The first half of this day had passed by much too fast to my taste, and the car ride gave me some leisure time to sit down and think. I had already met two people and one pokemon, and although they didn't seem to pick up anything strange about me, I had the disturbing feeling that they knew more than they said. I knew for a fact that the police commissioner knew more than even I did about my wound, and that was probably why he wanted to talk to me later on, but I had no idea how much the doctor knew about it, and it made me uneasy. On top of it, there was the absol whose name I didn't know, and I was certain that he would get me in trouble if I hanged around him too much. Classes were now about to begin, and I would get to meet a lot of other people and pokemon, who would probably be curious about me considering what I had just learnt. It was very likely that they would recognize me and the vulpix shown on TV and I started praying to all the gods I knew so they wouldn't question me about it.

My anxiety kept growing until we showed up at the gate. Once we passed it, I felt like my feelings had been disconnected. My heart wasn't beating too fast anymore, I wasn't panting, and my legs weren't shaking anymore. I was in a strange calm mood, as if I had exceeded the amount of fear my brain could handle and it simply decided to shut down the signal. When I stepped down from the car, there were a lot of people around, grouped together and talking cheerfully. All of them were accompanied by a pokemon. As expected, I saw a crushing number of growlithe and houndour, but also a few eevee and, to my surprise, zigzagoon. I even saw a pokemon I recognized to be electrike, but of all the ones I could see, none was an evolved pokemon.

Agnes lead me to the build we walked along in the morning, but instead of carrying on, we stepped in. The first room contained a ridiculous number of lockers. Agnes walked to hers, grabbed some clothes, then lead me to a separate very tiny room and changed into her police uniform. It was identical to the uniform I saw in the anime, but looked more functional. There were quite a few pockets on the shirt part of it, and a large belt with room for handcuffs, a tonfa, and even a holster. The colour of the uniform was a very dark shade of navy blue, and there was no hat.

"How do you like it?" Agnes asked me when she was done changing.

I didn't really answer, still overwhelmed by the presence of so many people and pokemon, and all the odours getting mixed into my nose.

"Hey Derek!" Agnes shouted as soon as we got out of the locker room back into the open.

She was waving at a man, a few meters away from her. He was impressively tall and muscular, and had a very typical closely shaved head and face. I had not realized until then, but all men had shaved heads and faces, and women all wore the same pony tail, although their length varied slightly. Derek, presumably Agnes' friend, turned to us. He was wearing his own uniform, but he looked very friendly, and joined Agnes quickly. Walking closely behind him was a flareon.

My first reaction when the flareon came closer was to hide behind Agnes. He was a bit smaller than Topa, but he had a weird sort of aura that made me realize how powerful he actually was compared to me - or her. His fur was mainly of an orange similar to that of my tails, but his tail and the fluff above his head was of a pale yellow like Topa's fur. He wore a magnificent mane around his neck in the same colour, and his ears were about as big as his head, shaped like diamonds, holding steady atop his head. His legs were not very large, but very muscular, and I felt like a single slap of one of those paws would send my head flying away. His claws were carefully trimmed into a dangerously sharp shape, unlike mine, that looked like a sorry mess of an outgrowing keratin tumour.

"Good to see you again," Derek said in his surprisingly high-pitched voice. "So, is that the one?"

"Yes!" Agnes said, stepping aside to let Derek see me.

I stepped aside instantly to hide from the flareon's line of sight.

"Her name is Ruby. She's... not too used to seeing so many people around, sorry."

I felt ashamed that Agnes had to apologize on my behalf, but the flareon's presence was too intimidating. He was staring at me with his big adorable black eyes, curious, but was sitting politely next to his human, waiting to be allowed to come near me.

Agnes picked me up to present me to her friend. He stretched his arm forward, waiting for my reaction to see if I allowed him to pet me. After sniffing his hand reluctantly, I allowed him to touch me. He carefully petted my head for a short time, then let go. His scent was particularly friendly and enjoyable, but I could feel in his hands the strength of his arms. I felt a bit reassured - someone as strong as I expected him to be would be able to protect Agnes if it came to it.

"Why don't you say hello to Pico?" Agnes said softly, looking at me with loving eyes.

Seeing I had no particularly violent reaction, she put me on the floor in front of the flareon. I took a few steps back, head down, trying to put on a show to look impressive as Topa had taught me to. I wasn't trying to show any signs of aggression except my tails were curled up behind me almost going under my legs instead of being spread into a fan behind me. In spite of all my efforts to regain confidence, I was terrified by this massive ball of fur and muscle. Nothing around me seemed to exist as my attention was fully taken by the flareon, sitting politely, looking disappointed by my reaction. Any wrong move on my end and he would chop my head off.

Agnes knelt to gently pet me to comfort me. She didn't speak or force me to do anything - she was just gently petting me with her right hand, while her left hand stood between the flareon and I. Feeling slightly reassured, I took a few cautious steps forward, and while standing as far away as I could, extended my neck protected by Agnes' hand to smell the flareon's paws.

He was male. Much older than even Topa. There were a few odours that I failed to recognize, but overall, he had the same strangely friendly smell as his master. He was clearly not aggressive and smelt extremely calm and joyful. As I was smelling his paws, he softly bent over a bit, smelling the top of my head. Startled, I jumped back a bit, but I felt reassured. There was no risk of him attacking me at all. He was just big, impressive... and male.

"Hello!" he said in a fairly deep voice for what I expected of a flareon. "My name is Pico."

Calming down a bit, but still afraid, I lowered my back, still ready to flee at any sign of trouble. Unsure of what exactly to do, I simply answered:

"I'm... Ruby."

The flareon looked delighted to receive a reply, but kept his composure.

"Please don't be scared," he said. "I want to be your friend! My human and your human are besties, so we should be friends too!"

The friend of my friend is my friend, huh? I knew I would have to befriend this monster eventually, but I didn't quite feel ready for it.

"You're... big," I said, unable to think of anything else.

"Sorry," he said, laying down. "What about now? I don't mean any harm. I wouldn't dare touch you."

"You wouldn't?"

"Certainly not! From now on, you are my friend. I protect my friends, I don't attack them!"

The idea of being protected by such a strong pokemon was reassuring, but I wasn't sure what Agnes thought of it. She was still petting me, and when I looked at her, she was smiling, probably understanding why I was so scared.

"You have nothing to fear," she said. "Pico is the coolest flareon around. You can trust him."

I felt like that last sentence was more of an order than an attempt to calm me down. I reluctantly assumed a more neutral stance. Pico, obviously very happy, stretched a bit before standing back up.

"Can I come closer?" he politely asked.

I nodded to allow him to, and when he took a few steps towards me, I couldn't help but admire the quality of his fur and the look of his body. He didn't come close enough for me to be uncomfortable and stopped a few steps from me. Having this mountain of muscle so close to me was both terrifying and reassuring.

Agnes and Derek started walking, and we followed right behind them. Pico would take a peek at me regularly as if to check on how I was doing and make sure I wasn't in danger. As I walked with him, I felt more comfortable, so much so that by the time we reached our destination, all my fears had already vanished, although I wasn't quite ready to call him my friend yet.

"Hello everyone," a voice I recognized said through a microphone.

I didn't realize that we went in the building opposite to the one with the locker rooms. It was, if my memory served me right, the one where the restaurant was, but we were in its main hall. It looked like some form of amphitheatre, with a small stage on which the director and his absol were standing.

"Welcome back to the school. I hope you all enjoyed your holidays!"

There was a wave of applause and cheering that surprised me into ducking. Pico instantly reacted by coming closer and covering me with his fluffy tail.

"Today is the start of the second half of your first year. While you will still have law classes, mostly, this second half focuses on physical exercise and will prepare you for different problems you will encounter in your career. At the end of the year, you will have a series of exams that will determine which specialization you take next year. I want you all to work hard for this, because the exams are difficult and every year, students are disappointed."

The whole room remained silent. That wasn't a very good motivational speech.

"This half will also introduce lessons together with your pokemon as well as pokemon-only classes. One of the most important is the battling class, which will start in two weeks. Next week, we will be holding a brawling tournament to group you all into pairs. You'll keep this pair for the whole year so that everyone has someone of similar physical strength to practise with, so make sure to give it your best. Details of the tournament rules will be given to you before it starts. You and your pokemon will also be taught to fight each other. This week will focus on primary physical training, and we'll start right now with the first swimming classes. Go to the pools and work hard. I wish you all a good year and I hope everything goes right for you!"

There was another round of applause, and the crowd scattered, heading straight for the pools. As I blindly followed my trainer and my new friends, I couldn't help but feel atrociously anxious. I had no idea what to expect, and I was thrown right into classes without much of a warning. Looking at Pico, who seemed to be enjoying himself, I felt relieved to have someone I could possibly rely on to help me through these courses. Considering what the director had said, I felt like I wouldn't be able to go through them alone.


	19. Chapter 19

The pools seemed to be closed, as everyone was waiting in front of them, gathered in small groups chatting joyfully. I was happy to see that nobody, pokemon included, seemed to notice me and Agnes, Pico, Derek and I could find a quiet spot to wait. While the humans were talking about things I wasn't interested in, Pico was trying to get my attention and talk to me, but I was still not very confident around him and decided to keep to myself. He was visibly saddened by my distrustful attitude, but that didn't seem to affect him much and I could tell that he was happy, waving his tail softly.

After a few minutes of waiting, the swimming instructor appeared, wearing a classical police uniform with a badge pinned above his heart. He too had a shaved head and was wearing a cap.

"Gather around," the human ordered. "Pokemon in this pool, trainers in this one. These are the first swimming lessons, so we'll be evaluating your performances before we start teaching anything. I'll give you more details once everyone's in their swimsuit and the water. Lessons last four hours, you'll pick up your pokemon after them."

There were quite a few disappointed whispers, but the instructor swiftly shut them down with a swipe of his arm.

"Swimming is all you'll be doing this week," he added. "From now I want everyone in their trunks and in the water before I come. You'll be in the pool by ranks waiting for me. Anyone who isn't will be kicked out of the class for the day."

More ranting could be heard, as not everyone seemed to be happy with these fairly strict conditions. Both Agnes and Derek were smiling softly as if they expected that.

"You have five minutes to get ready. Go to the main pool and don't do anything until I tell you to. Move!"

As everyone reluctantly walked into the pool, the pokemon stayed in place, confused. The instructor turned to them:

"You lot stay here, your instructor will be here soon."

Agnes kissed me on the forehead, asking me to stay with Pico no matter what and wishing me good luck, before heading to the pool, apparently excited to start the lessons. Derek followed her after a very formal handshake with his pokemon, but he didn't seem to share all her enthusiasm.

"Not a very friendly one, is he?" Pico commented as the area was getting progressively empty of humans.

"I hope our instructor is more friendly," I whispered.

Now that I was alone with Pico, I felt more comfortable being with him, and a lot less scared. I wasn't quite sure how to talk to another pokemon yet, but I figured it would be better to just do it than to shelter myself in silence.

"Doubt they will be," the flareon replied. "This is the army, right? Discipline is gonna be important."

The army?

There was a short awkward silence. I was getting more and more nervous, and Pico picked that up.

"Are you alright?"

"Yeah?"

"I don't know how you can be," he admitted. "I don't like water. These aren't going to be fun classes for me."

"I don't like water either," I lied.

The truth was, as a human, I did love water and bathing, but as a vulpix, especially with my wound, how would I like it? I knew that dogs enjoyed baths, but I didn't know what foxes were supposed to be like around water.

My thinking was cut short when I realized other pokemon had turned to me and were whispering to one another.

"Hey, there's a vulpix in here."

"I had no idea. It's the first time I've seen one."

"She looks so young."

"Where do you think she comes from?"

"I bet she belongs to Agnes."

The subject quickly changed to the recent attacks and pokemon made a link between them and me. Before I could find a way to escape, I was surrounded by a flock of curious animals, all staring at me. Pico was standing proudly by my side, and I could tell that none of the pokemon dared go any closer to me thanks to him. Most of the pokemon were gathered around me, but I saw a few that didn't seem interested that stayed in the back. Among them was a very grumpy eevee, staring at me from the corner of its eyes.

"What is this?" a feminine voice asked.

Everyone jolted and turned around. A proud vaporeon was standing a few meters away from us. She was about as tall as Pico, but compared to her, even the mighty flareon felt like a powerless bug. She had an absurdly powerful aura that even the absol didn't seem to have. She felt so strong that everyone became silent as a tomb the moment she was noticed.

Although her voice sounded very feminine in a beautiful way, not unlike Topa, she didn't look very feminine at all. She was obviously physically extremely strong, but her fur wasn't the sky blue colour I remembered from the games. It was darker, as if it were dirty, but still looked very carefully maintained. Her fur was so short that it looked like she had none and I was directly looking at her skin. Around her neck was a white fin, similar to the tissue that decorated her ears. As expected, she had a sort of horn above her skull, and the top of her head was of an ever darker shade of blue. Her big black eyes seemed to only show the pupils, and she was staring at the whole class with an angry look on her face.

"What are you waiting for? Go to the pool."

The pokemon around quickly walked to the entrance, ignoring me completely. Pico started following them, but stopped when he realized that I wasn't. I was frozen in place, scared of this new pokemon that appeared, unsure of what I should do.

The vaporeon took a few steps to come close to me. Her mermaid tail was moving slowly behind her in a fairly hypnotizing movement. She had along her spine and up to the tip of her tail fin a series of small spikes, of the same colour as the top of her head. Only when she got closer to me did I realize that parts of her neck fin were missing as well as a good part of her left ear. There were several visible scars on the left side of her body, leaving small pink stains on her otherwise beautiful fur. Looking at them reminded me of the scar that I myself had, although mine was much bigger and more painfully obvious.

"I've heard of you," she said when she was in front of me. "Ruby, isn't it?"

"Y-yes..."

I wasn't sure what to call her. Sir? Ma'am? Officer? Was I even supposed to know?

"I have instructions," she continued. "I know what happened to you, so if you feel dizzy during the exercises, you may exit the pool to rest on the side. I was told that your scar should do fine with water, but before I have you swim, I want to make sure that is true."

She blinked twice and stared at Pico, who was sitting besides me, as if she had just noticed him.

"You are?"

"My name is Pico. I'm her friend, I was instructed to look after her."

"Very good."

The vaporeon turned back to me.

"I've never trained a pokemon this young before. I don't know what you are capable of, so impress me."

She then pushed us to join the other pokemon by the pool.

As soon as I entered the building, I was hit by an uncomfortable smell of water and chlorine. We were gathered in a relatively small room, where everything was blue. On our right was what looked like a long corridor, and the door in front of me was closed, not allowing me to see past it.

"Listen up!" the vaporeon said, taking place in the corner of the room so on our left everyone could hear her.

Everyone stopped talking and turned to her.

"For those of you that don't know me, my name is Ilma. I'll be the instructor for anything related to swimming here. Feel free to call me Ilma or officer, whichever floats your boat. To my right there is the corridor that leads to the pools. There are several pools of different depths depending on how well you swim. What we're going to do here is learn how to swim. Sure, most of you think you know how to swim, but you're barely capable of keeping your snouts above the water. I'm going to teach you to swim efficiently so you're not a burden for your trainer.

A random pokemon whose voice I didn't recognized whispered from somewhere in the crowd.

"Easy for you to say, you have a fish tail."

"Well, maybe you'd like me to trim your tail into a fish tail too?" the vaporeon replied harshly.

The pokemon whimpered and didn't insist.

"If you have nothing interesting to say, say nothing. I don't expect most of you to be able to talk while you're trying to swim anyway. Most of you will never actually need to in your careers, but you need to learn how to and it is part of your courses. If you don't like water, suck it up, keep your tail between your legs and shut your muzzle. Is that clear?"

She was staring at Pico while saying that, which made him step back quietly, embarrassed.

"Who knows how to swim?" Ilma asked.

There was a deaf silence. No one seemed to have the courage to stand out after her speech.

"Alright... Who does not know how to swim?" she sighed.

I felt like my heart skipped a beat. I didn't and I knew I had to step forward, but I was too scared of standing out. After a moment of debating with myself and gathering courage, I stood up and took a shy step towards the instructor. Seemingly reassured by my courage, a few other pokemon imitated my movement, including Pico. In total, we were a dozen pokemon who didn't know how to swim. All except Pico and I were growlithe and houndour.

"Alright. Those who don't know how to swim, stay here. The rest of you, I want you to make two groups. Go in pools A and B, at the end of the corridor. Stay out of the water."

There was a bit of commotion as pokemon were trying to form to groups equal in numbers, but to my surprise, they succeeded quickly and dragged themselves to the corridor that lead to the pools. Soon after, only the twelve pokemon who didn't know how to swim were left with the scary vaporeon.

"You go in the first pool, directly on your left. Stay out of the water and wait for me. I'll give instructions to the two groups and I'll come back to you."

She then left to follow the two groups of pokemon, leaving us alone in the hall. As soon as she was far enough, the other pokemon surrounded me again. After asking for permission, they took turns asking questions in a more organized and polite way than before. Having Pico sitting right next to me felt reassuring, and I forced myself to answer:

"What's your name?"

"Ruby."

"Your trainer is Agnes, right?"

"Yeah?"

"How did you come to be a police pokemon?"

"Agnes took me in and it just kind of happened."

"Why are you so young?"

"Because I'm not older."

"Are you wild?"

"No more than you."

"Are you psychic?"

I was unable to answer that question. Suddenly becoming anxious, I looked at Pico to ask for help, but he was just sitting by my side, watching me carefully. Fortunately for me, another growlithe answered the question for me.

"You idiot!" I heard, followed by a slap. "She's way too young to know yet. I bet she only knows Ember."

The questions became more intimate and pressing, and Pico had to intervene and ask the curious pack to leave me alone. I was glad to realize that none of them seemed to have seen my scar, and that they were nothing more than curious animals. It didn't seem that they had bad intentions, and I felt like I could deal with their curiosity fairly easily if they managed to refrain from being too oppressing with their questions.

"Again?" the feminine voice I recognized asked.

Everyone froze.

"You lot are going to need to learn some proper discipline. Follow me."

Ilma lead us to the first pool, which looked exactly like any random pool I could see back in my world, except it seemed to be less deep and there were no platforms to dive from. The walls didn't allow us to see the other pools, but there was a person in a swimsuit sitting by the pool, staring at us.

"This is one of the aids," Ilma said once everyone was gathered around her. "He's going to take notes on what happens here, and if something goes wrong and I'm not around to save your tail, he will."

I felt reassured that there was someone to pull me out of the water if I started drowning, but being constantly watched by a person as I would without a doubt fail to swim was embarrassing. Other pokemon didn't seem to mind and were carefully listening to the instructor.

"We're going to do some basic exercises. I expect all of you can paddle to safety, but just in case... Is any of you not confident they can do that?"

Once again, I felt mortified to be the only one to step forward. As I took a shameful step ahead of the rest, Pico whispered to me that it was fine. However, no one seemed to be surprised.

"I wanted you separated from the rest anyway," the vaporeon said. "Alright. Everyone get in, except you, Ruby. Stay here."

As everyone was stepping into the water, I felt like I was going to pee myself. I felt so embarrassed and ashamed that I caught myself wishing I could die on the spot. Not listening to anything Ilma was saying to the rest of the group, I was closing my eyes, clenching my paws, and hoping that this day would end as fast as possible.

"Get in the water," the vaporeon ordered shortly after the others got in.

Opening my eyes, I realized that everyone was trying to stay afloat as best they could, swimming from one end of the pool to the other. Even Pico seemed to be struggling, which felt a bit comforting.

I hesitated before putting a paw in the water in the steps that lead into the pool. Expecting the water to be ice cold, I hazarded the tip of one of my front paws into the unknown, only to realise that the water was actually very comfortably warm. I put my other front leg into the water then stopped.

How would my scar react to the chlorine? I had never been this badly injured in my life, so I had no idea what it would be like. The doctor said that it would be fine, but was it going to hurt like putting salt on a fresh wound?

"Are you scared?" Ilma whispered to me.

"My wound..." I replied.

"Let it touch the water. If it hurts, step out. If it doesn't, lean in slowly. I take it you haven't seen much water before, huh?"

I shook my head from left to right. Breathing in deeply, I took a step forward, allowing my belly to enter in contact with the liquid, expecting excruciating pain to jolt me out of the water.

Nothing happened. I could feel the water run along my scar, but it didn't hurt. The scar itself felt more sensitive to heat, but it wasn't painful or uncomfortable in any way. A bit more confident, I put my whole body in the water, trying to keep my tails out of it.

"Good!" Ilma said in a much nicer tone than she had had so far.

I could feel my fur soaking in the water and becoming wet. All my movement felt much heavier, almost uncomfortable, as I tried to move in the shallow part of the pool.

"Put your tails in," Ilma ordered. "Crouch a bit and allow the water to get above your back. Let it soak in and get used to the weight."

I obeyed. When my tails were soaked in water, I had trouble moving them. Once my entire body had captured as much water as it could, I felt so heavy I wondered how I would be doing anything with this added weight on my legs, especially after weeks if inactivity.

"Alright. Come here."

Ilma lead me to a slightly deeper part of the pool, where I could barely keep my head above the water. Standing on the tip of my paws and with my muzzle facing straight up, the bottom of my ears was beneath the surface. Any step further and I wouldn't be able to walk with my head out of the water anymore.

"Now, try paddling to me," the vaporeon asked, standing on the opposite side of the pool. "Lift your legs up. You'll feel yourself sinking, but that's normal. Paddle with your right legs, then front legs. If you keep your body upwards, you'll float, but if you tilt it forward, you'll swim towards me."

Scared out of my mind, only the idea of everyone making fun of me for not being able to swim convinced me to take my legs off the floor and try. On my first try, I did feel myself sinking and panicked, padding furiously to try to put my legs back on the floor. The vaporeon, seemingly disappointed, used her tail to keep me afloat and told me to try again. Thanks to the tail holding me up, I managed to lift my legs without panicking, and was brought down progressively as the vaporeon stopped supporting me with her tail.

"Now paddle forward," she said.

I tilted my body forward, bringing my snout dangerously close to the water, and paddled, trying to mimic what I had seen of dogs and cats swimming. To my surprise, I started moving forward, and after a few seconds I realized that I wasn't being supported by a mermaid tail anymore and I was swimming all on my own.

"Very good," Ilma said. "Keep your tails in the water. You're wasting energy trying to keep them above, especially given how fluffy they are, they must be awfully heavy. Don't try to move them. Let them do what they want and focus on your legs."

I was surprised by how patient and motherly she had become. It was a direct contrast with her militarily strict attitude with the rest of the class.

"Try on your own, and when you feel ready, join the others and swim to the end of the pool."

She left, probably to go give instructions to the other groups of pokemon. Looking around me, I was happy to see that none of the twelve pokemon that were with me had been paying any attention to us. They'd been busy swimming and were obviously getting tired, but there was a look of determination on every one of their faces that I felt invigorating. After trying a few times to swim on my own, I waited for Pico and joined him in his exercises.

I was able to swim about an hour before I started feeling nauseous. The vaporeon who was watching us and giving advice quickly noticed and told me to take a break. Although I refused at first, I realized that it would be wiser to obey and simply sat in the most shallow part of the pool, waiting. I stared anxiously at the other pokemon who were still exercising, but none of them seemed to care. Most were obviously exhausted but kept trying.

Shortly after I stopped, Ilma ordered everyone to gather and gave them some time to rest. After several return trips between the three groups in their specific pool, probably giving new exercises, our instructor came back to us.

"Now that you're all more or less capable of swimming, I want to see how fast you can do it. Get in pairs of two and race each other to the end of the pool and back."

As others grumbled and obeyed, the vaporeon turned to me.

"You alright?"

"I'm fine," I said, even though I was still feeling dizzy.

"Alright, then I trust you'll be able to race someone? Go race with your flareon friend."

I reluctantly obeyed, conscious that I was probably too tired to do it. Even Pico seemed to be tired and was clearly unhappy with being in the water, but even that didn't seem to cut through his enthusiasm.

"Race you to the other end of the pool," he whispered with a smile.

I grunted. I was breathing quite heavily and felt like I was going to faint. My belly, while not painful, was horribly cramped and made it even harder for me to breathe properly.

"Are you alright?" Pico asked me.

"I'll be fine. I'm just tired. Let's get this over with."

I counted down from three and we started swimming. Pico, being much bigger than me, had a natural advantage because his paws swept much more water than mine, which made him faster. Fortunately for me, he seemed to be struggling as much as I was, and his size didn't matter much. However, he also looked less exhausted than me, and while I was struggling to even keep myself above the water, he could reach the other side of the pool comfortably, then turned around to swim back to the shallow part while I was still trying to stay afloat.

Ilma ended up diving to push me up and carry me back to the safe part of the pool. She looked quite angry at me, but took the time to make sure I was fine and had not started drowning. Pico, worried, came to check on me too, but was harshly sent back to swimming by the instructor, who turned to me, visibly annoyed.

"You stay here and don't move," she simply ordered.

Although no one else had stopped exercising, I felt their eyes pinned on me like a fly on a spider web. I couldn't tell what they were thinking, but I was scared of what they could say. Confined to my corner, I stared at the others, filled with angst and ashamed of myself. For the rest of the class, the vaporeon didn't bother checking on me and I felt like I was purposely being ignored by everyone, punished for my poor performance.

When the instructor finally told everyone to stop and come out of the pools, I dragged myself out of the water, expecting to be stormed on by everyone and made fun of but not ready for it at all. To my surprise, no one bothered with me at all and they just shook themselves dry as they could before going outside to meet their trainer. Only Pico had stayed with me. After shaking his body to get rid of the water stuck in his fur, he tried to comfort me, but I wasn't paying any attention and refused to let him talk to me. Ilma eventually told him to leave.

"Hey," she said in a friendly voice after making sure she couldn't be heard. "Don't beat yourself up, you did what you can. You certainly have room for improvement, but now you can swim. So what if you couldn't keep up with the others? They're all ten times as old as you are at least. You did your best, right?"

I silently nodded, unable to look at her in the eyes.

"Why are you so grim then? Take the time to learn. Not everyone starts on even grounds here, but when you all finish school, you'll have similar performances. If I may be honest, you did surprisingly well, too, especially considering the wound you're still recovering from."

"I'm not recovering anymore," I whispered as if I were scared she would hear me. "It's healed."

"Is it? How long has it been properly healed?"

"A couple weeks."

"Then you shouldn't be surprised you had to take a break. How much time did you have to stay without any exercising at all? Even in spite of that, you were able to last this long? I'm impressed. You have great willpower, little one."

"I'm not little," I replied, turning around to challenge her.

She smiled.

"And quite the attitude. I like you. Believe me, if you don't give up, you'll get far. If you don't give up. So stop worrying about what others do. They're not you, they'll never be you, and they don't care about your performances. Everyone is here to learn to better themselves. You're not here to be better than others. Why are you trying to compare yourself to them?"

She put her paw on my head and petted it.

"Go, now. Your trainer's still waiting."

I exited the building feeling strangely relieved. Agnes picked me up in a big fluffy towel to dry me. The feeling of her hands rubbing my fur, being in her arms, and having her looking at me with such a happy face made me feel a lot better about myself. The vaporeon was right - things could only get better from then on.


	20. Chapter 20

"How was it?" Topa asked when Agnes and I came back home.

"Tiring," I replied.

It would probably be best not to give her too many details, and I didn't feel like being lectured again about feeling bad for not doing as well as others. I just wanted to go rest.

"What did you do?"

"I learnt how to swim."

"Oh. That is awesome! Agnes will be happy. Maybe we can go to the lake!"

"The lake?"

"Yes! It is a bit of a tradition in this family. Agnes, Melissa and I usually go to a nearby lake on the mountains behind the house at the end of vacations. It generally takes us all weekend and we camp there. We did not do it this time because Agnes insisted on having you with us, but her parents refused, so she refused to go. Maybe now we will be able to!"

"On the mountains behind? So... the White Hat?"

"The White Hat is not far indeed, but we do not go there. Wait..."

She remained silent a short moment.

"If we can plan a longer trip, there is a chance we can try going there," she said. "I see what you are thinking. Unfortunately... Agnes' next vacation is a long time from now."

"Can't we do it in two days?"

"I am not sure. I do not know how far the White Hat peak is from the lake. We would need to ask Agnes."

"Heh..."

I felt a bit sad that my idea was spoiled, but at the same time, I was excited to know that it was possible for us to go to the White Hat mountain.

"Did you meet any other pokemon?" Topa asked, going back to the subject of the classes.

"Huh..."

I told her about Pico and briefly mentioned the absol and Ilma, but I kept the details of my interactions with her to myself, pretending that she was just the instructor.

"A flareon? That is not a common pokemon," she commented.

"I thought eevee was a common house pet?"

"Oh, yes, they are. The evolutions, however, are much less common. Do you know how eevee evolves? Or how pokemon evolve in general?"

"Well, in the pokemon games, there is a system of levels that represents the experience a pokemon has in fighting. When a pokemon reaches a certain level, they evolve."

"That is fairly accurate, although a pokemon's evolution is also partially determined by age. It is possible for a pokemon never to evolve that way, though. They will not evolve if they do not want to."

"So it's a conscious process?"

"Not quite. It is more like... you can feel it when you are ready to evolve, but you can consciously decide not to. However... you cannot decide to evolve at any time - your body needs to be ready for it. It takes a lot of patience and effort."

"How do you decide not to evolve?"

"I honestly do not know. The vulpix line does not evolve that way, so we do not have such choice to make."

She remained silent, probably waiting for me to tell her what I knew from the games in my world. It took me a few seconds to understand what she wanted.

"In the games, vulpix needs a fire stone to evolve. And can do so at any level. It's the same for eevee, kind of."

"Yes, that is correct. We do need a fire stone. However... evolution stones are rare and expensive. Even more so than regular gemstones. Having a pokemon evolved using one of them has been a sign of extreme wealth for a long time."

"And now?"

"There are no known sources of evolution stones. They are found by adventurers and researchers. Some people make a living by selling them. There are quite a few of them available nowadays, but they are still not affordable by the average household. They are not like normal gemstones, humans have no idea how they are created."

"So... Derek is rich?"

"He might be. Or he might have found one on his own, some trainers do that."

I wasn't quite sure what to say. I had too many questions in my head regarding evolution, and had no idea in what order to ask them.

"Where do people find those evolution stones?"

"I do not know. They are... random? As far as I know, there are no patterns or consistent locations where they can be found. And they do not grow out of a tree or grow back when picked up. It often takes a lot of mining to find one. Sometimes they are found in packs. Sometimes they are randomly found on the ground."

"Are they refined?"

"Refined?"

"Like iron. Iron is found in ores, then refined into steel."

"Ah, no. They are found as they are."

"This is so weird."

"Why?"

I didn't answer. In a way, this was very amusing to me, as it reminded me very much of rare items in roleplaying games that could be found after a certain quest line, but at the same time, I couldn't stop myself from wondering what exactly they were, how they worked, and how they came into existence. Did they have anything to do with the legendaries?

"What about eevee, then?" I asked abruptly.

"Eevee is really special. It can evolve into eight different pokemon."

"Vaporeon, jolteon, flareon, espeon, umbreon, leafeon, glaceon, and..."

"And sylveon," Topa added. "How does it work in your world's games?"

"Well... first three use evolution stones. Espeon and umbreon are huh..."

I took a bit of time to plan my explanation to myself before giving it to Topa. The way they evolved was so dependent on a game mechanic that I had no idea how it could translate to real life.

"There is a mechanic in the games called friendship. The more a trainer battles or walks with their pokemon, the friendlier the pokemon gets. Leaving the pokemon hurt or letting it get KO'd decreases friendship. Some items increase or decrease it too. And..."

"Sorry to interrupt," Topa said, puzzled. "What does KO mean?"

"Knocked Out. That is what happens when the pokemon runs out of H... health points. The real equivalent would be when a pokemon cannot fight anymore."

"Oh. They call it knock out? That is odd. Actual fainting happens quite rarely in real battles."

I ignored her and continued.

"When the friendship reaches a certain level, the eevee is ready to evolve. Then, all it takes is a level up at a certain time of the day. Levelling at night makes the eevee evolve into umbreon, and into espeon during the day."

"That is a bit odd, but... I see how it relates to reality. The process here is very similar - all it takes is for an eevee to have a certain experience or reach a certain age, and they can evolve."

"So, wait", I questioned, suddenly bothered. "How do they... reach said experience? I see how it works in a game, where everything is quantified, but in real life, how does it work?"

"I am not sure," Topa admitted. "It... it just happens. The pokemon knows when they are able to evolve and can make a conscious decision to trigger the process or not."

"Earlier you said they couldn't decide when to evolve?"

"That is correct. They do not decide when their body is ready - they can only decide when they themselves are."

"I don't understand," I confessed.

How could I? None of this made sense to me, especially not as a human. There was no equivalent to this in my world.

"Think of it this way," Topa tried to explain. "If Agnes were to give you a fire stone, you would be ready to evolve and would you be conscious of it, but it would not happen until you decide to. Similarly, you are always ready to use your powers, but it does not happen until you decide to make it happen. No one can force a pokemon to evolve if they refuse to."

"I... see. So I need to have the fire stone if I want to evolve, but just touching it will not instantly make me?"

"Correct! You do need to be in contact with it, though."

"How does it happen? What happens to the fire stone?"

"It is... consumed? In a way, you fuse with it. Or use it. No one knows the details of evolution, not even pokemon themselves."

"What happens when you evolve?"

"What do you mean?"

"You've evolved," I remarked. "What does it feel like?"

"It is weird," she replied. "I will tell you about it another day."

"Why?" I pouted.

"Too much information," she smiled. "I would like you to witness an evolution before I tell you more about it. It is a fairly impressive display, and I do not want to spoil it for you. Also... I want you to make your own idea of whether or not you want to evolve, and me describing the process might talk you into or out of it."

"Meh."

I felt unhappy that she was withholding information for no clear reason. I wasn't anywhere near ready to even consider evolving, especially since, according to basically everyone, I was too young to even go to police school.

"Okay then," I eventually said, hiding my discontent. "What about the other evolutions?"

"For eevee?"

"Well, yeah. Glaceon, leafeon and sylveon."

"They are all very similar to umbreon and espeon, only the setting is different. Sylveon only requires to learn a fairy-type move and can evolve once they can use it comfortably. Leafeon and glaceon need to be near special rocks, respectively a moss rock and an ice rock. There are known locations for these rocks, but they are generally tourist attractions and it costs money to visit one. Even then, contact with the rocks is never allowed unless another fee is paid, then the trainer is offered a special room where their pokemon can evolve in peace. Of course, tearing off a piece of the rock nullifies its power. However, unlike the night and day evolutions, these can happen at any age, and they have nothing to do with friendship. Umbreon and espeon are never found in the wild."

"So... they only exist because of the interactions with humans?"

"It seems so. I am not sure if eevee was always able to evolve into them and it was made possible by being domesticated with humans, or if they developed these evolutions. In either case, I like it very much. It proves that interactions between humans and pokemon are beneficial to us too."

We didn't talk much after that. We were called shortly after to go eat, then went straight to bed. I didn't even bother asking Agnes for cuddles. I was too exhausted and I couldn't stop thinking about the evolution. Did Agnes plan on having me evolve? It seemed likely, considering I was to be a police pokemon, being evolved would be much better for I would be stronger and more powerful, but would I accept? That would be another transformation, and I wasn't even happy with my first one yet. Would it get rid of the scar I had on my belly? Would it turn me back into a human instead of a ninetales?

I shook my head to get rid of the question and turned around on my pillow. It was too soon for me to even think about it, and I was too exhausted to get caught in depressive loops again. I sighed and tried my best to fall asleep, knowing that there was a rather awful week to come.

As expected, I was woken up too soon the day after, and I didn't even try to stay on my legs when Rakuen spent time brushing me while Agnes was getting ready. It seemed to amuse her a lot, but I was too sleepy to even care. I was only wondering why she bothered brushing my fur when I would spend the entire morning in a pool and it would be a mess when returning anyway, but I didn't protest. Having my fur brushed was a very pleasant feeling and I even got free ear scratches in the process. Unfortunately, it couldn't last forever, and I eventually got stuck in the car that took me to classes. For a moment, I envied Agnes' ability to be completely awake so soon, but I remembered I used to be able to do that as well - another thing I lost when I turned into a vulpix.

We were greeted by Derek and Pico when coming out of the car. The flareon kept himself from jumping at me and greeting me in a too invasive way, and I was thankful for it. Although I didn't feel all that scared anymore, I still wasn't comfortable around him, or around any other pokemon at all. This time, however, I could feel and notice lots of other pokemon staring at me more or less subtly. Among them were a houndour who stared intently, even when I looked back, and a shy zigzagoon who seemed to be embarrassed to be caught staring. I had a very bad feeling the moment I noticed the houndour's permanently angry face, and tried to put Pico between us, glad that the massive flareon was there to protect me.

When the humans decided it was time to get in their own pool to avoid being kicked out of the class, we pokemon reluctantly went into our pool's first room to avoid being yelled at by the instructor. The vaporeon arrived shortly after, and without even greeting us, barked orders at everyone. The pokemon separated themselves in three groups again and went to their respective pool. Before I could start moving, Ilma poked me with her tail and looked at me in the eyes.

"Remember what I said yesterday?" she asked.

"Yes," I replied. "I'll focus on my own performances and not compare them to other's."

"You better," she retorted sharply. "No quitting today, okay? I want you to exercise for the whole four hours. That is your goal."

"I'll try," I promised.

She then ordered me to go to my pool and instruct the others to wait inside while she gave directions to the other two groups. After repeating her instructions, I noticed that the shy zigzagoon was part of my group. My heart skipped a beat when I started wondering if he had been staring at me the day before too and had seen everything of my nearly drowning and being cast aside for being a bad swimmer. Feeling extremely embarrassed, I joined Pico who was sitting in a corner of the pool, obviously unhappy with being surrounded with water, and pretended to start a conversation with him so the zigzagoon would look away.

As a warm up exercise, the instructor had us swim from one end of the pool to the other a few times. Although I still wasn't very confident about swimming, I tried my best to keep up with the others. Pico was ahead because of his sheer size, and everyone seemed to be struggling as much as I did. Every time I completed one two-way trip, I took a very short break to ensure that my belly did not feel cramped as it did the day before. After this, she had us race in pairs again. I wasn't all that tired and managed to complete a few races against Pico, which I lost, before my belly started being painful again. Remembering what had happened last time I tried to swim with this cramped stomach, I requested to take a break until I felt better, then resumed swimming. Looking to the side, I saw that the aids were taking notes on what happened and one of them probably noticed my unauthorized breaks, but that didn't bother me. At the end of the four hours, I was exhausted, but I had kept my promise.

"Very nice," Ilma congratulated me when we were all stepping out of the water. "You lasted all four hours."

"I took a break," I confessed. "My belly started hurting too much and I had to stop."

"So?" the vaporeon asked with a smile. "I didn't say you had to last all four hours without any breaks. You didn't overwork yourself and were able to admit it when you needed to stop. That is good! It means you know restraint, and that will be extremely important in your future career. Don't worry about your physical performances, you will be doing much better by the end of the training. We don't ask anyone to swim like fish. We only ask that they do their best, and you did. Keep it up."

I went back to be dried up by Agnes in a fantastic mood. She did notice and was herself pretty cheerful.

"We're going to have lunch," she said, putting me down after drying my fur as she could. "Pokemon are not allowed in the cafeteria, unfortunately, so I have to ask you to wait for me. Stay with Pico, this won't take long!"

I felt a bit sad to see her leave without me, but I knew it was only temporary and decided that I could accept it.

The bigger problem was that now that I was alone with Pico, I was barely taking measure of how many pokemon were in this school. I had not been paying attention to that before, but I could see swarms of them coming out of buildings. The ones that weren't leaving with their trainer seemed to be gathering inside the stadium building.

"We're going there," Pico explained, noticing that I was looking at it. "Pokemon generally wait there while the humans eat. Come."

I followed him closely, quite scared of the sheer number of pokemon around. To my surprise, the gym was exaggeratedly big and could probably have contained several football fields, and there was more than enough room for every pokemon. Most were gathered in groups, chatting happily. Some were playing together, racing one another from one point of the building to another, wrestling, or comparing their powers. The atmosphere in the gym was extremely light-hearted, and although it was quite noisy, I felt more comfortable in it than I did outside.

Pico and I sat by one of the walls, rather isolated. From that position, I could see all other pokemon, and was happy to notice that none of them were paying attention to me. I recognized the grumpy eevee again, who was laying alone in a corner, and saw a few pokemon I would not have expected to see in a police school: electrike and meowth. I also fleetingly noticed another eevee, but that one seemed to be more outgoing and was joyfully chatting with a group of growlithe. The proportion of dog pokemon, houndour and growlithe, was absurd. Apart from Pico, I couldn't see any evolved pokemon around, which made me understand why the flareon was so respected in the school. As I was told, I was the only vulpix in the entire building.

After idly chatting with Pico for a few minutes, he stood up, saying that he had something to do, and promised to be back shortly. I felt insecure watching him go, but with all the commotion around and no one paying attention to me, I shrugged the feeling off and tried to take a short nap.

I didn't get much time to try to fall asleep, as one of the houndour who was racing other pokemon around the building interrupted his game to come talk to me. I instantly recognized the houndour who was staring at me earlier.

"Hey," he greeted me when he was close enough not to have to shout. "Excuse me. Do you mind if I join you?"

"Heh, sure," I answered, trying to hide the fact that I would rather have been alone.

"You're new here, right?" he asked, sitting by me.

Out of courtesy, I sat down as well, and answered:

"Yeah."

"I've never seen a vulpix before," he admitted, not hiding his curiosity. "Where are you from? How did you come to be a police pokemon?"

I didn't know what to answer exactly for the first question, and quickly decided to give a vague answer to keep the conversation going and avoid giving him any suspicions.

"I was wild until Agnes rescued me, so... it just kind of happened."

"Rescued you? So you're the vulpix that was shown on television?"

I cringed. I would have slapped myself for giving away that information if I could have. It was too late to undo it now, and I had to roll with it:

"Yeah, that's me."

"Wow... so you..."

He vaguely gestured towards my belly. I sighed, bringing my legs closer to my body to make sure to hide the scar. I was getting very uncomfortable. Something about this houndour was off.

"Impressive that you survived it," he commented. "You know, at least eight other pokemon died from this. You should consider yourself lucky."

"I would have been lucky if I didn't have this wound," I replied rudely, getting annoyed.

"And you're so young and so weak. Others who were much stronger than you died, you know."

"Yeah? It's not my fault."

I was getting feelings that I couldn't even interpret. The houndour was becoming more pressing and had stood up, slowly closing in on me. I had not noticed, but I had stood up as well, walking back to try to keep a certain distance between us two.

"Yet, you survived," he insisted. "I know someone who didn't."

"Pardon?"

At that exact point, I felt my rear hit the wall. I couldn't retreat any further and I was starting to feel genuinely scared.

"The ninth victim, the houndour who died in the pokemon centre. She was my sister."

I had not paid attention to it, but after he mentioned it, I realized that he had a very similar odour. Remembering the houndour's eyes as she was dying made my heart race. I started breathing heavily.

"So? I had nothing to do with it. It's not my fault. What do you want?"

He didn't answer. I realized that it was about time for me to leave, but as soon as I tried to take a step, he would step on the side as well to block me.

"What are you doing?" I questioned, unable to hide my fear anymore. "What do you want? Let me go."

I knew what was going to happen. I was desperate to find a way to prevent it, but I knew I wouldn't be able to. Looking around me in search for some help, I realized that no one had noticed what was going on, and felt mortified that no one was paying attention to me.

"Are you scared?" the houndour asked, abandoning his falsely nice character to display an evil condescending smile.

"Yeah. Why are you doing this? Go away. Let me go."

I tried dashing away, but the houndour reacted surprisingly fast and stopped me. Still displaying his condescending smile, he was perfectly aware that he was in a commanding position and was enjoying his control. I was thinking as fast as I could, trying to find a solution to escape. I was a human - surely I could outsmart a mere dog.

I faked a dash to my right, towards the wall and away from the entrance. As expected, the houndour fell for it and dashed in the same direction, trying to block me. I instantly started running away from him, following the wall.

I had not been in this state of panic since the houndour's trainer, in the pokemon centre, had tried to strangle me. I felt like I was reviving this as I was running away, possibly for my life. I could see his eyes riveted on me as he was trying to kill me because I had survived what his pokemon did not - and now the pokemon's own brother was about to do the same. In a state of pure terror, I tried looking behind me to check how well the houndour was keeping up.

That was a mistake. I instantly tripped and crashed my muzzle into the ground, before rolling on my back and landing on my side. The houndour, seemingly very satisfied, jumped at me, all teeth out, aiming for my throat. I turned my body around so my tails were facing him, and as he landed on my four legs, I pushed my whole lower body up while giving a kick as powerful as I could. This effectively sent my aggressor flying away and crashing on the ground as well. While he was stunned, I got up as I could, but my lower belly was being very painful and slowing my movement down, and I did not have time to run before he got up and charged again. He hit me in the torso with the shiny part of his head, which felt like bone. My body got carried for a very short moment before he threw me upwards. I landed behind him as he turned around, and he jumped at me again, one of his paws pushing onto my throat as he was trying to claw it. I was on my back, trying to push him away with my legs, but he was physically too strong and I knew I wouldn't be able to stop him for much longer. Remembering my martial art classes, I stopped pushing him with my back legs and swiped his instead by swinging my entire lower body horizontally. As he lost balance, I kicked his muzzle to push myself out of the way and turned onto my belly. Unfortunately for me, he had no trouble catching up and crushed my head against the floor with one of his front legs, then leant forward and bit one of my ears. I emitted a very loud whine when I felt his fangs pierce my skin. Struggling to get away, I managed to make him lose balance again, cutting my ear badly on his teeth in the process. Crying both from the pain and panic, I tried to crawl away, but he head butted me again, making me roll on my side, and I landed stomach up. He jumped at me teeth out and bit one of my front paws as I was throwing them forward to try to stop him. I emitted another whine, much louder this time, and tried kicking his belly with my back legs as I saw my cats do when they were playing. Unfortunately, I had no energy left and my kicks were clearly inefficient. He let go of my paw and aimed at my throat again. The moment I expected him to bite me again, he was sent to fly again, and without thinking, I crawled behind the pokemon who had just saved me.

It was Pico. He was standing in the same position Topa had shown to me, looking extremely impressive and growling. I was hiding under him, feeling dizzy from the pain. The houndour that had just been pounded away was having trouble standing up, unsure exactly of what happened. When he noticed Pico was in a very aggressive stance against him, he didn't insist, and fled without a word. Other pokemon were starting to gather around, trying to check on me, but none dared get any close to us. A few of them gave chase to my aggressor. Stunned and dizzy, I didn't notice the hands picking me up, but I immediately recognized Agnes' scent and stopped moving altogether. I was just crying, shaking widely, glad to know that I was finally safe.


	21. Chapter 21

"You're fine now," Agnes whispered, hugging me tightly.

"Pico!" I heard Derek say as he rushed to his pokemon.

The commotion has gathered many trainers around. Most were joining their pokemon to make sure they were fine.

"You," Agnes barked at one of them. "Go get the doctor."

Agnes stopped hugging me to inspect me. Although she noticed my ear and paw bleeding, she remained very calm. She stared into my eyes, talking softly to me to calm me down. The fact that I was in her arms, away from any danger, and that Pico was around to protect me helped me calm down, and although I was still shaking from a mix of pain, fatigue and panic, I was able to think clearly and control myself.

"Is she alright?" Derek asked after making sure that Pico was not injured.

"She is wounded," Agnes retorted, not allowing Derek to even look at me.

Pico didn't try to check on my state. He was sitting behind Derek, his tail and ears down, staring at the floor. He raised his eyes occasionally but would look away as soon as I looked at him.

"What happened?" a male voice I didn't know asked. "Where is Fenrir? Agnes, is that your vulpix?"

It didn't take long for the boy to connect the absence of his pokemon to my wounds.

"Did... oh god. I..."

He gave a hint of several hand movements towards Agnes and I, but stopped himself every time. Looking genuinely worried, he apologized to Agnes before running off to find his pokemon.

"What is going on here?" the doctor asked.

Hearing his voice made me happy. I looked at him rushing to me as Agnes knelt to put me on my back. After a quick glance at me, the vet told Agnes to bring me to his office, and shouted at everyone else to scatter and go back to their business. Derek was not allowed to follow us.

Back in his office, Agnes gave me to the doctor for examination. After a few painful and uncomfortable minutes during which I let him do whatever he wanted to me, he checked my heart, belly, and my wounded paw and ear, and eventually sighed.

"She's fine," he announced, relieved. "Scared and hurt, but not in danger. Her belly didn't suffer any hits either. Her paw is going to need more attention than I can give, so I'll bandage it and focus on the ear for now. Call the pokemon centre and get us a veterinary vehicle."

I could feel him move part of my ear around as Agnes was pulling her phone and calling an ambulance. The teeth of the houndour, as I tripped him, had cut two parallel slices of my ear, and there was a rectangle of it that could flop around one axis. I could feel it rub against the rest of the ear as the doctor was repositioning it properly.

"Why is she bleeding so much?" Agnes asked after her phone call, visibly worried.

"The ear is very thin but has numerous blood vessels," the doctor explained while looking into his cupboards. "It bleeds very easily. The two tears have cut through the marginal ear vein."

"Is it bad?"

"Nothing serious, really. Ear wounds are always minor. Normally, I would cauterize around the veins and let the ear heal with scar tissue, but she's a vulpix and it's going to be difficult to burn her skin. I'm going to stitch instead."

He went to his cupboards, looking for something in them, and came back to me shortly after. He took time to pet me to reassure me, but his words did the opposite:

"You're not going to like this. I need you to stay as still as you can. The ears are around the most sensitive parts of the body," he said as he cleaned the area of my ear around the cuts.

The first time I felt the suturing needle pierce my skin, I jolted so much that I nearly jumped off the table I was standing on, were it not for Agnes holding me strongly but with care. I managed to stand where I was for the other punctures, but it was an extremely unpleasant experience. In total, he gave me four stitches - two deep into the ear, probably near the ruptured veins, and two at the edge to keep the skin properly aligned.

"This will heal rather quickly," he explained. "We'll need to bandage the area. We generally bandage the entire ear around the head, but..."

The doctor looked at me.

"You wouldn't like that, would you?" he asked, not actually expecting a response. "I'll make you another bandage that won't slap your ear against your head. You'll need to change it every second day," he added to Agnes. "For her wrist, she's going to need a set of exams. Depending on what happened, it might be pretty bad. The nurses at the pokemon centre will give you more information."

He cleaned and bandaged my injured wrist before petting me on the head and telling me I'd be fine. Ordering Agnes to wait in the office, he went outside to guide the ambulance to me whenever it arrived.

"Hey Ilma," Agnes suddenly said.

Turning around, I realized that the Ilma Agnes was talking about was none other than the swimming instructor. She jumped onto the table to face me. I couldn't contain my surprise:

"Wait, you're his pokemon?"

"Yes," she replied in a smile. "How are you feeling?"

"I'm injured," I noticed. "It hurts."

"I know," she said, pointing nonchalantly at the missing piece of fin on her left ear. "Be happy your ear is still whole!"

"It's not funny," I pouted, sounding a lot more upset than I meant to show.

Ilma lost her smile and started looking serious.

"What happened?" she asked.

I told her about the stalking houndour and how he had slowly gone from curious classmate to physical aggression. I glossed over the fight, simply saying that had had tried to kill me and I was trying to flee.

"So you've done nothing that could have made him angry?"

I understood that it was sort of a routine question, but the moment she asked it, I felt like my stomach was turned inside out. I felt tears growing in my throat and I simply roared:

"Yeah, I have this ugly-ass belly wound, clearly this is my fault, how dare I live?"

The vaporeon seemed to be taken aback by my reaction, but didn't lose her composure.

"Alright," she simply announced. "Wait for the ambulance now, and don't put your paw on the floor. For your ear, you might want to avoid flapping your head or moving too much. I assume I won't be seeing you in class for the rest of the week, so we'll need to find a way to catch up."

Once at the pokemon hospital, I was directly taken to a small x-ray machine, where the nurses took pictures of my injured wrist. I was disappointed to notice that Nurse Joy wasn't the one to take care of me this time, but she was the one to come back with the x-rays:

"I have good news," she announced, showing the dark paper to Agnes. "She's avoided a lot of trouble. The bite is fairly deep and around the wrist, which could have lead to very serious structural damage. Fortunately for her, there doesn't seem to be any. Her bone is fine, the tendons aren't damaged, and there's no tearing around the wound. However, wrist wounds tend to lead to joint infections, and those are pretty bad. I'm going to put her on high doses of antibiotics and pain medication for a week. If her paw is still swollen after that, you need to bring her back here. The puncture wounds will heal on their own quite quickly, so there should only be minor inconveniences to her mobility. She will know on her own when she can start using her paw again, but once again, avoid exercising and water for a week. You'll need to wash the wound and change the bandage every other day."

"Thanks," Agnes replied.

"She's going to be in a really bad mood for a few days," Nurse Joy continued. "She'll be in pain, even despite the medication. She might refuse to eat, but don't worry if she does. Don't force her to."

She turned to me.

"Can you move your paw around for me?" she asked.

I let her grab my injured paw and move it around to make sure there was no problem. That was quite painful, but I clenched my teeth and remained silent. She was right in thinking that I would be in a bad mood, but I also felt really weary and quite overwhelmed. After giving a few more directions to Agnes, the nurse left, and we left the pokemon centre. A police car was waiting for us outside and took us back to the school. The driver explained that we were to be met by the director to hear the decisions made about the incident.

Derek, Agnes, the houndour who attacked me and Pico had all been summoned to the director's office. We were inside, waiting by ranks, pokemon sitting by their trainer. Agnes had carried me thus far and when I got to sit on the floor, I figured it would be best not to put any strain on my wrist and kept it from touching the floor. Derek and Pico were wisely placed in the middle, and I could feel the houndour's burning hate towards me, and Pico's silent anger, which made the situation extremely awkward. Agnes didn't seem to be angry at all, and the houndour's trainer was confused and very apologetic.

No sooner had the director appeared at the door than the humans froze in a respectful salute. Unsure of what I myself had to do, I peeked at the other two pokemon. They were sitting in a dignified position, flexing muscles. No one moved a hair until after the director's absol joined in and sat by his master, who simply ordered:

"At ease."

The atmosphere was very different from the friendly, relaxed one I noticed when I had first come in this office. It was very clear that this was a very serious situation, and proper discipline was to be expected from everyone.

The school's doctor and his vaporeon joined shortly after and stood by the director.

He sighed.

"Let me make it clear," he announced. "Never in this school have two pokemon been caught fighting like this. You're setting an unprecedented event, and not a good one at that. I hope you're aware of it."

There was no answer. I could feel that everyone was very uneasy, almost scared.

"Now, we don't know exactly why this happened, but we know what happened. Based on the report I was given by Doctor Belish and his vaporeon Ilma, the situation is clear. Neither Pico nor Fenrir show any form of injury whatsoever, not even a bruise, while Ruby had to be taken to the pokemon centre in emergency. There are traces of blood in the stadium and I don't think you'd be surprised to learn who it belongs to. Considering the fact that your houndour was given chase and apprehended by several pokemon while Pico stayed with Ruby and was clearly protecting her, it's pretty obvious that this was an aggression."

The director stared at the houndour's trainer.

"Any explanations?"

"I don't know, sir," he instantly replied, become stiff as a stick. "Fenrir has never acted like this before. At least not before his sister's death."

The doctor intervened:

"His sister is the houndour that died in the pokemon centre almost two months ago, right?"

"Yes, sir. We've only been able to give her a proper burial last Saturday. The police were denying that for their investigation."

The director and the doctor met eyes for a short moment.

"Very well. Since this is clearly a case of aggression, you'll be considered fully responsible for the events."

"Yes, sir," the houndour's trainer muttered in a hiccup.

"However, considering the circumstances, I don't think a full punishment is in order, at least for you. You're suspended for a month. Mourn the death of Fenrir's sister, spend some time with him, and come back anew. You're also tasked with moping the stadium to get rid of the blood your pokemon spilled. Fenrir will be sent to canine training section starting next week."

"Yes, sir. Thank you."

"Derek," the director said, turning to Agnes' friend.

"Sir!"

"Your pokemon's intervention may very well have saved Ruby's life. He was able to drive the aggressor off of her and show enough restraint to stay by her side until she was safe. He and the pokemon who gave chase to Fenrir are to be commended on their behaviour."

"Thank you, sir."

"You're off the hook for this one. Make sure that Pico stays around Ruby at all times."

"We will, sir. Thank you."

"Agnes."

"Sir?"

"Ruby clearly is a victim in this issue, so there will be no punishment for you either. She will need to rest until her wounds heal, so you may take the week off if you so desire and spend that time with your pokemon."

Agnes looked at me, as if to ask for my approval. I shook my head from left to right. I couldn't let her miss classes because of me. Hesitating a few seconds, she nodded and turned back to the director:

"Thank you, sir. With all due respect, I must refuse. I am in perfect health condition so I can continue my training. Ruby agrees with me."

The director looked at me, visibly surprised by my decision.

"Very well," he concluded after a few seconds. "Dismissed."

As we were about to leave the door, Doctor Belish tapped on Agnes' shoulder.

"Bring Ruby in tomorrow, please. I think Ilma would like to see her."

The vaporeon confirmed in a nod.

"Very well," Agnes said before lifting me up and taking her leave.

"Are you alright?" Agnes asked me once we were in the car.

I nodded. I was, for the most part, actually alright, now that I had time to digest all the feelings, and although my body was horribly painful, I felt strangely excited. It was probably just the adrenaline rush that wasn't gone yet, but I had a lingering feeling that I couldn't describe. Promising myself to dwell on it and try to identify it, I laid as I could on my seat as Agnes drove home, petting me at every chance she had. She didn't let me walk from the car to the mansion and carried me straight to my pillow, where Topa met me with worried eyes.

"Are you alright? What happened?"

"Later," I said, grumpy and exhausted. "I'm tired, I want to sleep."

I said that as an excuse to have some time alone to be able to process what happened. Topa probably guessed it and agreed to leave me.

I felt lost and humiliated. I didn't understand why the houndour's loss had brought him to attack me. It surprised me even more because it was absolutely not something I would have expected of an animal, as I wasn't even certain they understood the concept of death. Pokemon obviously did understand it, but even then, there was no reason to attack me unless he considered me responsible for his sister's death, as if I had killed her myself.

Was that what he actually thought? Was that what others might think too? How could they even reach such conclusion when I myself had been a victim of the same attack as she, except I survived and she didn't? Did the mere fact that I survived make me guilty? Did that houndour, and possibly others, think that I did not deserve to live? Should I have been feeling guilty of surviving? What did I even think about that? The houndour was now the second one to try to kill me because I survived something another pokemon died of, following his sister's trainer. Should I expect more people to try it? If that was the case, then I needed to learn how to defend myself as soon as possible, or I wouldn't last very long in this world.

And then, what happens? What if I died? Would I turn back into a human? Would I turn into something else? Would I... simply die?

I heard Agnes come at the door, silently staring at me. I was pretending to sleep and didn't raise my eyes to her, but I could hear her sigh. As she switched the lights off before leaving, she whispered:

"You and I are going to have a tough life together. I hope you can handle it."

I was woken up the morning after by Agnes, who was gently stroking the top of my head, carefully avoiding my wounded ear.

"Hey Ruby, how are you feeling?"

I felt a lot less excited than the day before, but surprisingly, I didn't feel particularly depressed or upset. Although my paw and my ear were really painful, I was physically rather well, albeit annoyed that I had to spend yet another week in bed. Trying to reassure my trainer, I joyfully responded.

"Ilma said she wanted to talk to you, remember? I'll take you to her this afternoon, but until then, you can rest all you want. I'm going to carry you downstairs so you can eat something and take your medicine, okay?"

I nodded and she did what she said. When eating, I noticed that pills had been mixed with my food, but I didn't feel offended by it. It just made it easier for me to take them. I wasn't too sure what they were, but I remembered the nurse talking about painkillers, and considering the state of my paw particularly, I was more than happy to take them. After I was done eating and Agnes left, Rakuen carried me back to my pillow and spent some time brushing as much of my fur as she could reach. She didn't look very worried, but at the same time, she was being very careful. Finally, the humans left me alone, and Topa joined me in the room.

"How are you feeling?" she asked again.

"I'm... fine," I replied after a short hesitation. "And I mean it. My leg and my ear hurt, but I'm not depressed or upset. Just... a bit lost."

"What happened?"

I described to her the events of the day before, trying to be as accurate as possible. She listened very carefully, especially when I described the fight, and didn't interrupt me at all. After I was done, she waited a few minutes, seemingly thoughtful, before saying:

"I am surprised this did not upset you more than that. It seems you are a lot less depressed than you were just a week ago."

"Yeah, I don't know. I don't feel depressed. I mean... I still don't know why I turned into a vulpix and it still bothers me, but I've pretty much come to terms with it. Gotta live on, right?"

She smiled.

"It does me good to see some positivity from you. So, tell me, what did you learn from this?"

"The aggression?"

"Yes."

"Well... I suck at fighting. He completely dominated me, I didn't stand the slightest ghost of a chance. Pico saved my skin there. I owe him."

"That is not what I think," she replied.

"I don't owe him anything? He saved my life."

"Not that. I think you did extremely well in the fight. You said you managed to throw him to the ground twice, is that correct?"

"Yeah?"

"That is quite the feat, especially when the strength difference is so big. You also had a lot of good reactions. Trying to turn on your belly to stop him from accessing your throat was a wise move if you knew you stood no chance of winning. How did you make him fall twice?"

"I just... applied stuff I learnt as a human from martial arts and it worked."

She nodded.

"We need to wrestle," she announced.

"I can't," I replied, waving my wounded paw at her.

"Not now. When you are allowed to exercise again, we need to wrestle. You need to learn how to fight. I am not very good at it, but any experience will do you good."

"I'd rather learn how to battle," I pouted.

"That, too. We have a lot to do. How soon will you be allowed to exercise again?"

"Nurse said about a week, but I don't think I'll need to wait that much."

"Alright. As soon as you feel confident about the state of your paw, tell me."

"When will I learn more moves?" I whined.

"After you learn how to use Ember in a battle, I will teach you other moves."

I pouted. I was looking forward to learning more moves, and I felt like using only Ember was going to be a sizeable disadvantage. I couldn't wait to learn Will-O-Wisp myself and make my own shiny blue wisps.

The whole morning was excessively boring. Although I didn't feel much pain anymore thanks to the medication, my paw was still very stiff and tense and it made me very irritable. The humans had obviously been warned and avoided me, even Rakuen despite her tendency to be clingy every since I allowed her to pet me. I couldn't even walk to go to the pokemon training room and release my nerves in flames. Topa regularly came to check on me, but we didn't talk much. Despite resting plenty, I felt exhausted and weary. All I wanted was for these new wounds to heal so I could go back to exercising. I even caught myself looking forward to swimming lessons again.

Thinking back about them, I realized that I had grown to like Ilma, and was wondering what she wanted to talk about. She was likely going to question me about my mental or physical state after the fight. Would I be wrong to confide in her? I was hiding my thoughts even from Topa, whom I knew loved me too much to be truly objective, but would the vaporeon be able to think more objectively? If so, was she intelligent enough to be able to answer my questions and help me with my thought process? Would it be a mistake to talk to a teacher about my problems?

I wasn't sure what to do anymore. I didn't want to bother Topa with what I was thinking, but I knew I needed to talk to someone. Of all the people and pokemon who could have tried to talk to me or get me to talk to them, Ilma was the first one to have come forward.

I shook my head. If I couldn't make a decision, there was no point in dwelling on questions that couldn't be answered. All I needed was to wait and decide as I was talking to her. I wasn't sure if I could trust her, and there was only one way to find out.


	22. Chapter 22

I spent the entire morning in the pokemon practice room, firing Ember at a wall under Topa's careful eye. I felt like she wasn't really watching my performances, but making sure that I wasn't overexercising and hurting my paw. Although I could put it on the floor without pain, I wasn't sure if that was because of the painkillers and didn't dare put any weight on it, which made me hop with my back legs whenever I needed to walk. Topa was following me around most of the time, helping me whenever I needed to, and although I was secretly thankful for that, I felt annoyed by the complete loss of privacy. Overall, as the doctor predicted, I was fulminating with rage, but being aware of it I was able to control myself and not lash out unjustly at anyone. Throwing balls of fire at mattresses on a wall helped me vent out some of that anger, but I knew it wouldn't be enough. I had feelings that I was unable to identify and control, and those were certainly responsible for my current state of rage.

"When are we going to start practising?" I complained to Topa, short on breath.

"When you are better," she promised.

"I need to learn how to fight before next Monday," I insisted. "There will be the brawling tournament and I don't want to humiliate myself."

"Brawling tournament? Humiliate yourself?"

"The school will host a brawling tournament to sort us by level. I don't want to get and get ridiculed by everyone else."

"You should not worry about your performances compared to other pokemon's. There are many reasons why you might not do as well as you would like, and all of them are valid. You should worry about getting better for yourself, not about getting better than others."

I turned around, pouting. That was almost exactly what Ilma had said, and I felt upset to know that she would be disappointed to hear that I had not actually listened to her. Annoyed, I turned my back to Topa and went back to venting my rage on the poor walls.

When Agnes came back to the manor after morning classes were over, my anger vanished, quickly replaced with a form of angst I couldn't identify. As she came to check up on me, I was still venting my rage in colourful bursts on the mattresses of the pokemon practice room. She silently walked up behind me and sat by my side, waiting for me to turn to her. Topa left the room, realizing that this would be a private moment between Agnes and I, and knowing she was not needed if humans were around.

"How are you feeling?" she asked, gently petting the top of my head while carefully avoiding my wounded ear.

I didn't reply and hopped on her crossed legs as I could, lifting my injured paw to avoid putting any strain on it. She gave me time to sit before she continued stroking the back of my head. We stayed in that position for a few minutes, completely silent. I could feel my anger vanish, calmed down by simply cuddling with Agnes, but at the same time, a feeling of intense worry built up, that had been inhibited by my resentment.

"You know," Agnes said, hesitating. "I don't believe you've done anything wrong. This Fenrir attacked you, it's not your fault. Don't let anyone make you think otherwise. But..."

I stared at her and was surprised to notice she looked very resolute, as if she were going to say something difficult.

"I don't think you should resent Fenrir or his trainer," she continued. "That's not going to change anything, and it will just make the matter worse. I know it's hard, I'm beyond pissed at that houndour for doing this to you, but what does that achieve? It just leads to more trouble. I'm not asking you to forgive him - I'm just telling you you shouldn't try to get revenge. Okay?"

I nodded. I wasn't idiotic enough to try to get revenge on a pokemon that was that much stronger than me, but I did feel extremely angry at the houndour. His sister's death was not my doing, and it was unfair that I be punished for it.

"Remember that Ilma wants to see you," Agnes added, gently tapping my hindquarters to tell me to get off of her lap. "I'll take you to the doctor's office before class, and you'll stay there until classes are over. Listen to what she says, but remember: she's your superior and you should stay polite at all times. I can see that you're angry, but don't let that get the best of you."

She stood up, dusting her pants.

"When you're better, we will need to train harder than before. I'm not going to let anyone think that you're weaker than them because you're younger. Think you can handle that?"

I had no idea what "that" referred to and I was not truthfully sure I could handle anything, but I yelped with confidence anyway. Now wasn't the time to let Agnes down or let her know that the recent events had affected me. I already had plans on practising with Topa, and Agnes' ideas could only be beneficial, but I was a bit weary of how exhausting it would be.

When she left the room to go eat, I asked Topa to carry me upstairs so I could lay on my pillow, waiting for the dreaded time when I would have to go back to school and face Ilma. I had no idea what she wanted to talk about and could only assume it would be related to the houndour's attack.

"You look so calm," Topa noticed.

"Huh?"

"You smell angry," she explained. "Extremely angry, but you are acting so calm and level-headed. I am surprised."

"Painkillers are making me a bit groggy," I replied as an excuse. "And... Agnes being so calm really helps me."

"I see," Topa whispered, probably more for herself than for me. "I am glad you can control yourself so well. When you said you were attacked, I thought it would be a hard hit on you. You were just starting to feel more lively and I was afraid you would slip back into depression."

"If anything, it makes me angry, but... I know I shouldn't let it get to me, so I'm trying to move on."

"I am glad," Topa repeated. "That is very mature of you."

"I'm not a kid," I shrugged.

No words were exchanged beyond that, and I could enjoy a moment of silence to try and sort out my thoughts. Unfortunately, Agnes interrupted me quickly, saying that it was time to go back.

As promised, Agnes stopped by the doctor's office before going to class. The vaporeon was not with her human, and he decided it would be a great opportunity to check up on how my wounds were healing. To my relief, the ear was repairing well and there was no sign of infection on my wounded paw, which meant that I would be getting better rapidly. While waiting for his pokemon, the doctor made me do a few exercises to maintain my injured wrist. Although some were fairly painful, I clenched my teeth and waited patiently.

When the vaporeon finally came in, the doctor left the office, leaving us two to talk, saying he didn't want to be a disturbance. After a few awkward seconds during which I did not dare look at my instructor, she asked:

"How are you feeling?"

I worked up the courage to look her in the eyes. She was sitting on the medical bed right next to me. I had never been this close to her, and I was only noticing how damaged her entire left flank was. Her fur was too short to cover the scars and I noticed that there were dozens of them, scattered over her entire body. Apart from her damaged ear, her head was mostly without scars, except for her left eye which had a slightly lighter colour than the deep black of her right eye.

"I don't know," I sighed with honesty. "How am I supposed to feel?"

Ilma seemed to be surprised by the question, but kept her composure and answered quickly:

"Hurt. Irritated. Upset. I would expect you to be at least one of those three."

"I am hurt," I replied, waving my paw at her.

"Not physically injured. Emotionally hurt."

"I don't know," I shrugged. "I've been attacked. It's the third time this has happened, I'm getting used to it."

Ilma has a very odd eye movement that I would interpret as raising an eyebrow. She was definitely not convinced by my answer.

"Run me down through everything that happened yesterday."

I sighed, meaning to show my discontempt, but Ilma ignored it.

"I was in the gym, in a corner, waiting for the end of classes. I saw there was a houndour that was staring at me but it didn't really bother me, I'm pretty sure most pokemon have already been staring at me because I'm a vulpix."

It felt like my throat collapsed on itself when I said that.

"Probably, yes," Ilma confirmed, probably to encourage me to continue.

"Pico left me for a few minutes, I don't know why, I didn't ask. Then that houndour came to me and started asking me questions. The conversation quickly came to my belly wound and my... aggression. Then it switched to the houndour that died in the pokemon centre. She was his sister and he's unhappy that I survived. I asked him to let me go but he wouldn't. I tried to run away but he attacked me, we fought and Pico saved me."

"I see. So you've done nothing to him."

That was no longer a question, but a mere observation, but it made my blood boil. Unable to contain myself, I lashed out at the vaporeon:

"Yeah, I did nothing. You thought I was responsible? I woke up in the pokemon centre fucking dead and this idiot tries to kill me because I survived and his sister didn't. I've never done anything. I never asked for any of this shit. Why is everyone ganging up against me?"

I was fulminating. Ilma, unhappy with my rude language, simply stared at me, and my anger quickly turned into fear. I ducked in a very submissive stance, scared out of my gut by the vaporeon's amazing power.

"Watch your tongue," she ordered strictly. "I would smack your anger out of you if you were not injured right now. Don't do this again."

"I'm sorry," I whined. "It won't happen again."

"Good!" she replied with a smile, abandoning her overwhelming shadow.

Her smile was only ephemeral, and she became serious again.

"I know you're not responsible for anything that happened to you. But... You would be lying if you said it didn't affect you."

"Of course it affected me," I replied. "I died once, came close to dying again a few days later, and now someone tries to kill me. All because... I survived something. I don't understand why everyone hates me for it."

"Not everyone does. In fact, I would argue no one does. The houndour and his sister's trainer's reactions are just like your reaction to my implying you might have been even partially responsible for the attack. It's a purely emotional reaction. So, let me ask again: how are you feeling?"

I took some time to think about a proper answer.

"I don't understand," I explained. "Why is all this happening? I am so... lost. Before I can come to terms with something that happened, something else happens and adds to it. I'm completely out of control, I can't do anything. I've been saved from death three times. And I was powerless. I feel so weak and useless. I'm just... nothing."

"I would argue that you are not weak, but I see where you're coming from. And I can understand why, I've been there too. I can tell you that you will need to work hard to overcome that feeling, and it's going to take time. The police training program is meant to make you stronger physically and in skills, but it's very tough and requires a lot of tenacity."

"Do you think I can do it?"

"Certainly," she replied with confidence. "I haven't seen much of you, but your attitude in the pool proved that you have guts and the will to do what's asked of you and more. The fact you fought an adult houndour and came out of it with only minor injuries tells me a lot about your potential."

"What would you know about that? You haven't seen the fight. The houndour is just an idiot, he could have killed me three times over."

"He could have, but he didn't, because you didn't let him. You successfully stopped him three times from killing you. How does that not boost your confidence?"

"It was luck."

"You did something and it worked. Three times in what... two minutes? Against an adult foe who has probably spent more time training for fighting than you've spent alive."

"I panicked. I didn't plan any of it."

"That is what makes it so good!" Ilma insisted. "That is where skill is determined. In a fight, a battle, or a war, you have no time to plan or follow your plan. Shit happens, and you have to react to it, and if you try to stick to your plan you are dead meat. Your guts and your instincts will save you, and yours seem to be strong."

"They aren't," I insisted as well.

"Describe the fight to me."

I did, as accurately as I could remember. It was still vivid in my memory, although I thought back to it with more brain and less guts.

"That was good," Ilma commented, genuinely impressed. "I would never have thought of tripping him that way. How did you come up with that?"

"I just needed him off of me so I could run. I knew I didn't have the strength to push him away with my hind legs, so I had to find an alternative. He was only standing on his hind legs so that was a weak spot. Even then, it didn't do anything. He caught up to me easily."

"You've made that analysis, which by the way is very accurate and surprisingly sharp, while fighting the houndour, trying to keep him off of your throat, and in a state of panic. Do you understand what I'm saying? That is amazing, especially for a pokemon with little experience. You're cunning, quick-thinking and remarkably intelligent. And you're so young! I am telling you, you are very skilled. I don't understand why you are so worried about being weak. You've been pretty spectacular so far."

I wasn't sure if she was being genuine, or if she was trying to make me feel better, but I felt like I didn't deserve the compliments. I knew I was weak, and I would just disappoint her if she truly placed that much hope in me.

"Is that what you wanted to talk about?"

"Mostly, yes. I wanted to make sure you were coping with the attack. Don't let it get you down or ruin your confidence."

"What are others going to say?"

"Who cares? If anything, they learnt they should not mess with you. Your flareon friend would protect you anyway. Focus on your training and don't worry about others. Have you not learnt anything from the swimming sessions?"

I looked away in shame, aware that she knew I had indeed not learnt my lesson after I nearly drowned.

"How is your belly holding up?"

"I'm fine," I replied, being honest. "It's pretty much healed now. I just have... this ugly massive scar. And now I have two more."

"You should be proud of your scars," Ilma advised with a proud smile. "They're your story. Witnesses to the battles you've fought and won."

"I can't be proud of this one," I sighed, referring to my stomach wound.

To my surprise, the vaporeon lost her smile and became very grave, looking away with an unmistakably sad look on her face.

"I know how you're feeling, believe me," she announced, almost whispering.

"What happened... if I may ask?" I hazarded.

She looked at me, and I discovered a whole new part of her in her eyes. It felt like she had lost all the power she had been emanating this whole time, and she became more like a normal person, secretly tortured but not showing it, and she was now displaying the full extent of her vulnerability. The idea that she had problems of her own had never crossed my mind. She felt so strong, fearless and generally in control that I never considered that there could be anything she did not have control over, and I was struck by how wrong I was.

"I don't assume you do, considering you were wild, but do you know the geopolitical situation of this country?"

I shook my head. Although I was looking forward to knowing more about it, and about the world I was now living in, I felt guilty for bringing up the subject in this context and considered backing off, but Ilma had already started talking and I did not dare interrupt her.

"There are several continents on this planet. They're... huge patches of lands separated by oceans. There are three of them: the biggest one is at the very north, it covers the majority of the north hemisphere on its own. The two others are a bit smaller - one that covers a bit of the equator and goes south, the smallest, and ours, about halfway into the south hemisphere. Of course, it's divided into numerous countries. We're at the very left of it. This country's called Mensa, and it currently is the biggest in the world in terms of surface by quite far. Now... There's an island north of it called Idyllis. It's shaped kind of like a goblet, and it's insanely rich. It's always been under our control, but there's a country called Ruize not too far from this one that had been eyeing it for quite a while. About thirty years ago, after an election, the country's president became aggressive and started invading his neighbours. We took no part in those wars until Ruize launched an attack to seize control of Idyllis and its resources."

She took a break to make sure I had understood everything. It was a bit too much information at once, but I saw clearly were this was going.

"Where are we with regards to the country?" I asked.

"South... Kind of. A bit to the west of the middle line of the country, too."

"How come this country is so much bigger than the others?"

"Across history, it has always been very powerful and other kingdoms did not dare challenge it. The emperors here were quite greedy and annexed vast areas, and it all evolved into the country we have today. Other kings were a bit wiser and most importantly a lot less rich, so they couldn't afford to go to war with others to expand their territory."

"I see. It's just a matter of power, heh?"

"Sort of. It's always said that the area this country covers nowadays is the origin of pokemon. There are three extremely famous mountains here that attract a lot of attention. They're not particularly tall, but they're remarkable in other ways. Some say they're cursed, and they've always been an important part of this country's history. There's the White Hat, which you probably know, very close to this town. It's the tallest of the three. Northwest of here, nearly at the extreme west of the country, there's a mountain called the Gold Hat. It's the shortest one and looks like a tall hill. All the vegetation there takes on a permanently yellow colour. And east of here, about midway between the White Hat and the Gold Hat in terms of latitude, there's the Red Hat, which is a volcano. Naturally, access to all three is strictly forbidden."

I managed to contain my smile, noticing how reminiscent this was of the three islands featured in the second pokemon movies. Hearing about those three mountains also made me excited, for the similarity between them and the movie also increased the chances that my theory about Articuno was correct. I couldn't wait to tell Topa and above all to find a way to get to the White Hat.

"These form a weird triangle, and right in its centre, you can find the capital of the country."

"What is it called?"

"Mew."

My heart skipped a beat as I was unable to contain my smile anymore. I probably couldn't get any more excited about it all. Unfortunately, Ilma ruined my excitement by going back to more serious matters.

"Ruize attacked Idyllis by surprise. The response from our government was swift and merciless. Unfortunately, we couldn't just march onto the country without having our military go through neutral ones and we had to stick to fighting on our ground. Doctor Belish and I were soldiers back then, and we got drafted. We were part of the medical staff and it wasn't pretty."

"You were already a soldier?"

"A rather experienced one, even. Both of us were. We had been in the military for over ten years."

"What? How old are you?"

Ilma smiled.

"That's not a question you should ask a superior! I don't mind, though. I'm 67 now. Doctor Belish is 54."

"You're 67?"

I was baffled. I would never have guessed that she was so old. Did vaporeon, or the eevee evolution tree in general, have outrageously long lives like Ninetales?

"Are you surprised?" she asked, genuinely curious.

"Yeah. I thought you were really young."

"I am," she confirmed. "Vaporeon can live quite long lives. I'll probably outlive my human's children's children. I won't live anywhere as long as you would if you evolved, though!"

"How long?"

"Few hundred years. Three to four."

I had trouble wrapping my mind around a life that long. Why were there not way too many vaporeon or ninetales around, with lives this stupidly extended?

"I have so many more questions," I complained. "But... I interrupted you. I'm sorry."

"It's fine. You're curious, I can understand that. Do you want me to continue my story?"

"Yes, please."

I was genuinely curious to know what happened to her. I could already somewhat guess, but I didn't know the details, and I didn't want to make any assumptions.

"We got drafted after there was a clear front line. We were sent to the island to act as medics during the battles. We've been in... more battles than I care to remember, and it was pretty horrible, but that's the nature of war. It's difficult to survive a gunshot, whether you're a human or a pokemon."

"Wait," I interrupted again. "Pokemon participate in wars too?"

"Of course. We all fight. Humans have guns, we have our powers. It gets messy and ugly quite fast. Of course, pokemon are always a priority target. There are specialized units to snipe and kill pokemon before they can use their powers. On the other hand, there also are technologies to protect us. Pokemon are generally the main casualties, too. Humans shoot them and we use our powers to kill one another. And if one side loses all its pokemon, it's pretty much over for them."

"That's..."

"It's war," Ilma sighed. "I don't understand what the point of it is, but it's our job as soldiers. We kill the enemy until they give up."

"So, your wounds..."

"Near the end of the war, we participated in a global offensive against enemy positions. They had a very strong fort that we were to attack, and we had been very well prepared for it. We had a whole squad of psychic types to deflect bullets, fire types in the back to clean the machine gun nests and the infantry in general, a few poison types to cover us with fog and so on. Naturally, our enemy also had their own squad of pokemon, and the job for us water types was to target and neutralize the enemy fire types. Also, as medics, we had to tend to the wounded and evacuate them when possible. We were to get in close combat as soon as possible and use the fire and thunder types to wipe out the enemy."

She paused. I could see in her eyes that these were painful memories for her, and I couldn't even begin to imagine why.

"You see, in a pokemon battle, everything is balanced. It's well done, all types stand a chance against other types. But in a real battle... fire and thunder win, period. Their ability to kill is so much superior than other types that they're the main resource in an army. Of course, every type has its strengths, but in a head-on battle like that, they're just too strong. Us water types are pretty much useless, alas."

"When the assault was started, everything went well. Our psychic types offered great protection against stray bullets, the poison types did their job as disruptors, and we could advance with little resistance. Unfortunately, all hell broke loose when we came in range of their artillery. Our commandos sent to destroy it had failed and they started decimating us. I'll spare you the details, but the first wave was pushed back and we had to retreat. When the retreat order was given, our formation was broken and we no longer had any protection."

She sighed.

"Our squad got hit by mortar fire. Head on, right in the middle of everyone. Our psychic type got torn to pieces. The shell exploded almost directly next to me and I tanked all the shrapnel. I was blown several metres away, knocking other people down on my way. Belish and a few others came to me to carry me back to safety. I was rushed to the military hospital and taken care of. They had to burn the entire left side of my body to stop the bleeding before removing all the shrapnel pieces one by one and cauterising every wound several hours a day. It took me almost a year of regular surgeries and exams to make sure my internal organs were doing fine to recover from it. The war was over before I could return to the front, and Belish and I were decorated. By taking in all the shrapnel, I had saved the life of most of the soldiers in my squad, including Belish's. After the war, we were offered a position here, and that's how I came to teach swimming to police recruits. I lost part of my fin and my left eye is almost completely blind."

I was speechless. I didn't know if I should try to say something to make her feel better, or just let her finish her story. I couldn't even imagine the pain she had gone through. I started feeling guilty of complaining so much about my own wounds when I had actually gone through so little compared to her.

She turned to me with a very resolute face. She didn't seem to be sad anymore, but she was still very serious.

"I know how you feel when you say you've avoided death. I've been there. I know what it feels like to watch someone die. And I know how difficult it is to get up after that. But you've got to try and make that effort. Don't listen to others saying you should keep going to honour the memory of those who died. Live for yourself. No one's going to live for you."


	23. Chapter 23

After an awkward moment during which I pondered which reaction would be best, only to decide to remain speechless, we started chatting about the school in general and how I was feeling about it so far. Unfortunately, the small talk was brutally interrupted by Ilma's trainer, who barged into his office, clearly in a hurry. He was wearing a police uniform, which I had never seen him with, and had come in to grab a lab coat he hastily equipped.

"We're going," he simply ordered his pokemon.

The vaporeon looked at me, puzzled, before barking at her trainer, standing next to me.

"Ruby's coming. Agnes is waiting in the car. Hurry."

After seeing me limping my way to the ground, he realized that he forgot I was wounded, and came to me to pick me up, then stormed off into the parking lot. A police car was waiting for him, Agnes standing nervously by it. She rejoiced when she saw me in an apparent good mood, and took the time to hug me before being forced into the vehicle by the driver. Ilma sat with us at the back while doctor Belish took place on the second front seat, and the car roared out of the police school, siren wailing.

"What's going on?" I asked Ilma.

"I don't know," she replied, surprisingly calm, as if this was just another Wednesday for her. "Wait a bit and we'll learn more."

"Did something happen?"

"Yes. We're being driven to a crime scene."

"Why were Agnes and I taken along then? We aren't police."

"I think you can guess why on your own."

I felt my guts clench as the scar on my belly seemingly bloated to remind me of its presence. The doctor was on his phone, saying something about arriving soon.

Agnes, while worried, had a very calm face and was patiently sitting by the car's door next to me. She too was wearing her uniform, but had no badge. When Belish finished his call, he turned to us:

"Sorry for taking you out of your classes, Agnes," he started explaining. "Another dead pokemon was found, and it suffered the same wound as Ruby. We're going there to examine the area before journalists and other nuisances come in."

"Why was I taken along?" Agnes asked in a surprisingly neutral tone.

"Ruby is a victim, and you are a witness, on top of being an apprentice police officer. You two might be of use."

"If the body was recently discovered, how did you get authorization to bring us in?"

The doctor smiled.

"I didn't. Stick with me and don't stray away. This is true especially for you, Ruby."

I nodded in his direction, showing I was not going to disobey.

"It was the director's idea," he added with a mysterious smile. "I know forensics and crime investigation isn't the speciality you want to take, but having you with us might prove fruitful."

I looked at Ilma, worried, but she didn't seem to share any of my anxiety. She gave me instructions on what to do and what not to do while at the crime scene, which could simply be summed up with "don't touch anything", and successfully calmed me down, saying there wouldn't be any fighting and we were just going to have a look around and look for clues.

Once the car stopped, we were allowed out of it by the doctor himself, who then walked quickly to the crime scene. It was, just like what I had seen in the movies, surrounded by several armed policemen making sure no one undesired was stepping in. They had deployed numerous weird poles to which they had tied "crime scene, do not cross" ribbon to prevent entry. There were too many policemen around to count, most of which were followed by their pokemon. All of them were evolved and wore a collar with a shiny police badge attached to it. They were too busy setting a perimeter or doing other things I wouldn't be able to guess to pay attention to the new group of people coming in. Only the man standing in front of us to check for IDs noticed us.

"Sir Belish," he said, standing in a respectful salute.

"Hey," the doctor replied casually. "This is Agnes Trokair. She's a student and has been invited by the director to join us in the investigation. The vulpix is her partner."

The man looked at us in disbelief, but didn't seem to be eager to challenge the doctor in any way and simply let us pass, staring at me as I walked by him. I simply followed everyone, scouting around me, impressed by the number of people there were and the pokemon I could see. Overall, they were all evolved forms of the ones I had already seen at school, although as expected, there were no ninetales, flareon, or any of the eevee line. None of them paid any attention to us and we walked straight into the director.

"Hey Agnes, Belish," the latter said upon seeing us.

His absol was not with him, but he had on his shoulder a beautiful bird, with feathers of fire and ash. His belly was grey with red spots, not unlike burning cinder, while the top of his body was red and the end of his wings were black. The bird was taller than Ilma herself and about twice as tall as I was, and although he looked fiercely impressive, his power felt puny compared to the aura Ilma was herself emanating. Without realizing it, I took a few steps closer to her, to the point where I could bite her tail without extending my neck. When we stopped walking, the talonflame chirped at the vaporeon before the director sent him away.

"Sir," Agnes saluted.

"I assume you know why you were brought here?" the director asked directly.

"Yes, sir," she replied.

"Good, that saves me some talking. I'll leave you to Belish, I have things to attend to..."

The talonflame came back, shouted at his trainer while nodding, and flew back to where he came from.

"… and journalists to fend off," the director added with a smile. "How are they so fast? Oh well."

He then ran to follow his pokemon.

"Follow me," the doctor ordered. "The body is by the forest."

Only then did I realize how many trees I could see not far off. They were perfectly normal trees, although I wouldn't have been able to identify their species, but something felt odd about it. The tree line was eerily clean, and the separation between the forest and the outside of it was brutal. The trees were surprisingly dense for the border of a forest, and it felt like light simply refused to step into it. Upon seeing the vegetation, the bloating feeling of my scar became worse, and I started feeling extremely uncomfortable.

"Ilma?" the doctor said as we approached the body.

The vaporeon nodded, then stopped me from walking any further by putting her tail before me, blocking the way.

"Wait here," she said.

"I can't go see it?" I asked, slightly hurt. "Why bring me in then?"

"I don't know if it's a good idea for you to see this. Do you know what's under that shroud?"

"It's a pokemon that was killed by whoever attacked me, right?"

"Correct. Do you still want to see that? You won't see the aftermath of the wound. You won't see it partially healed or covered in a bandage."

I froze for a second, remembering my own wound, realizing I was scared of imagining what it would look like before being healed, but I shook the feeling off. I was drawn to it by an unexplained morbid curiosity. I felt like I needed to see it, at least once, now that I was here.

I turned to Ilma and nodded.

"Sit here and listen to the humans," she ordered. "I'll bring you with me when it's my turn."

Her turn for what? Inspecting the body? Reluctant, I sat as told to and waited.

"It's the same," I heard Agnes say, her voice muffled by the hand covering her mouth and nose. "Same wound, same blood traces. The pokemon was injured inside the forest, then tried to crawl away, and..."

She didn't finish her sentence. The doctor added a few things that I didn't listen to - my eyes were being drawn to the forest. I was fascinated by the mystical feeling it gave, although it was more creepy than beautiful. Ilma noticed and explained:

"This is the Gloss Forest. I can see understand you're drawn to it. There are lots of stories surrounding it, and with all these attacks happening, it might just have received a new one."

"That's... the Gloss Forest?"

She nodded. I remembered my conversation with Topa about the White Hat and that forest, but while I was still very excited to go to the White Hat and find out whether or not Articuno actually lived there, I was absolutely certain I did not want to visit the forest anymore.

"I don't like it," I said.

"I can understand," she repeated. "I wouldn't like to go back to Idyllis either."

At that moment, the doctor called Ilma, and she dragged me with her. I was reluctant to get any closer to the edge of the forest, but I was curious to see the body.

"Are you sure you want to see this?" Ilma asked me again.

I nodded, resolute. Ilma looked at her trainer and nodded too, and he lifted the shroud covering the corpse.

I would not describe what I saw, but it instantly made me feel extremely nauseous. The feeling in my belly became so intense that I turned my head away from that hellish display and attempted to scratch the scar on the floor, as if that would make it go away.

"Are you alright?" Agnes and Ilma asked at the same time.

I took a few seconds to gather my spirits and ignore the fact that the gaping wound I had just witness was decorating my own belly but a few weeks before, and walked one step closer to the body, enough to give it a few sniffs.

I was taken aback by the nothingness. The body has no smell whatsoever. Not even the smell of the growlithe it belonged to - it was completely devoid or any scents, as if the black hole of a wound was sucking in all odours as well. Puzzled, I turned to Ilma.

"Can you smell that?" I asked.

"It has no smell, right?" she confirmed. "I can. All the bodies were the same. Absolutely no odour. The humans don't seem to be aware of it. I was hoping that you'd be able to smell something, since your sense of smell is one of the best in the entire pokemon kingdom..."

She sounded disappointed and puzzled at the same time.

"Can you smell something?" the doctor asked.

I replied no, although I wasn't certain he realized that I meant it literally. He was probably assuming that I just didn't recognize any scents, which would have been helpful.

Belish sighed and turned to the forest.

"I think it's time we closed this off," he said. "Most of the bodies were found next to this forest. The mayor doesn't want us to because it's a popular tourist attraction, but ten pokemon have been murdered here. Well... nine."

The director came back to question Belish about his findings.

"Same as usual, sir," the doctor replied. "This also matches what Agnes saw. There is no doubt: this is the same killer."

The director sighed.

"We need to close the forest," Belish said.

"Agreed. I'll talk to the mayor this evening. Journalists are here, I suggest you stay with us if you don't want to bring attention to yourself."

That last sentence was directed at Agnes. She had become sadly famous for being my owner after the news of my survival was made public, and there were no doubts the pests would try to pester her if they noticed she was around.

Belish and Ilma then walked around the body, carefully examining it and what was around it hoping to find something new. They took a few samples from the wound and the blood trail the pokemon had left when trying to crawl to safety. Agnes and I had been instructed to assist and point out anything we could notice, but neither of us said anything. I spent time sniffing around on Ilma's suggestion, but apart from the body, everything had normal scent. Even the blood traces smelt like the growlithe, and there was no specific odour I couldn't guess the origin of. When I shared my conclusions with her, the vaporeon sighed:

"How can someone kill ten grown pokemon and not leave a single trace?"

"They did leave a trace," I replied.

"Oh? Did you see something?" Ilma asked, interested.

"No," I explain, feeling ashamed of being unable to help. "But... They leave no trace, not even their odour. That's something unusual."

"Oh, that," she whispered, disappointed.

Her ears stood up shortly after and she turned to me smiling.

"Aren't you clever!" she commented. "Considering that leaving no traces is a trace is unexpected!"

"Did you not think of it already?"

"I have, but I did not expect that from a first year student. Especially not of a pokemon that was wild just a few months ago!"

Although she was enthusiastic, I felt guilty, as if I had done something wrong. After that, I didn't say a word, pretending to follow and try to help while Belish and Ilma were working, but my attention was focused on the forest. I was hoping to see one of the lights Topa mentioned, thinking that I could identify them, but I couldn't see anything. Staring at the forest only made me increasingly uncomfortable. I felt a strange feeling of anxiety and fear fester in my gut, and it grew so overwhelming that I ended up tugging on Agnes' trousers to ask her to get away from this place.

She noticed that I was scared and picked me up, trying to reassure me, as we all walked away from the body. Belish gave the evidence he collected to one of the policemen and we went back to the car. Although there were quite a few journalists outside of the perimeter, mostly taking pictures, we managed to avoid them and reach the car undisturbed.

"How are you feeling?" Belish asked Agnes.

"Sad, I suppose," she admitted.

"I was afraid seeing the body would..."

He wasn't quite sure how to finish the sentence, but Agnes shrugged.

"It's not the first time I've seen that," she said while petting me. "I hope some of the samples we took will help."

"If it's similar to all other times, they won't," the doctor sighed.

"Are you going to close off the forest now?" Agnes asked.

"Probably, yes. I don't know what, but it's related to these murders. All the victims have been found in the forest or by the edge. Ruby's reaction to staying there so long also tends to show that something is happening in there."

"I found her by the forest too," Agnes remembered, "but it was late at night. I couldn't see anything but her. I wonder if she remembers it."

I didn't, and I wasn't certain I wanted to. The idea of having been attacked and killed was enough for me - I didn't want to known the details.

"Thanks for your help," Belish said while Agnes and I took place in the car that brought us in. "I have more work to do, so go back to the school for now. Don't bother going to class, they'll be over soon anyway. Get your car and go home."

"Thank you for taking me with you," Agnes replied.

I looked at Ilma, wondering how she was going to tell her trainer about the absence of smell. She smiled at me, and her smiling face, albeit damaged, made me feel a lot better, as if I were sharing something with her I was not sharing with anybody else.

Back at the mansion, Topa pressed me with questions about what Ilma wanted to talk about. I only mentioned her questions about the attack and didn't talk about her personal story. I also told her about the new victim and what we did while at the crime scene, sharing Ilma's opinion and our discoveries. She seemed to be interested mostly in the forest and completely ignored the odourless body.

"So the attacks happen in the Gloss Forest?"

"Yeah," I confirmed. "I'm not sure I want to go there anymore."

"You did not know that you had been attacked there?"

"I don't remember anything before I woke up... dead. It wasn't my life."

Topa seemed to be puzzled, but also disappointed.

"You wanted to visit the forest, right?" I asked.

"Yes," she admitted. "After what you said about wisps and spirits, I was curious to go there and see for myself what those lights are. As I explained before, they could easily be explained if a pokemon is responsible for them. Remember Will-O-Wisp? However... I feel like I would like to be wrong. I hope the explanation is less simple than that."

I was surprised by her tone as she said that. She felt... sad. Not the kind of sadness I had seen in her before, where she was worried about my well-being. It was something different.

"I don't know if I do," I replied. "But... I'd like to get to the bottom of this. I want to know what those lights are."

"So do I!" she smiled, recovering her enthusiasm. "With the police closing access to the forest, it might be difficult."

I remained silent.

"How are you feeling?" Topa asked all of a sudden.

"Huh?"

"Regarding the... the new victim. You saw the wound, did you not?"

"Yeah. It was... disgusting. I can't picture myself having the same injury. Honestly... it didn't really affect me. It feels too surreal."

"I see."

She took a break, thinking.

"I still want to go in the forest," she insisted. "The attacks always happened when the pokemon were alone, right? We will be fine if we are together, especially if Agnes is with us."

"I'd rather see the mountain", I complained.

I didn't like the idea of going back there, remembering the odd feeling I had and how scared I was just seeing the trees. Whoever had attacked me was in there and I was certainly not going to give them a second attempt.

"We can see both!"

I found it weird how much Topa was insisting. It was the first time she had made it clear she wanted something. Although she felt very enthusiastic and cheerful, there was something sad in her eyes, as if that forest reminded her of sad memories. I on the other hand was not happy about it and decided to change the subject:

"Can we go practice more?"

"That would be a bad idea. You are still injured."

"I'm fine," I lied.

As proof of that, I put my paw on the floor, clenching my teeth as stealthily as I could. Surprisingly enough, there was no pain, and I could walk correctly despite the bandage being a bit of a bother.

"Alright," she conceded, obviously happy at the idea of playing with me. "Be careful not to overexercise."

"We can take more breaks," I suggested. "I just want to do something, I feel like punching a wall."

"Are you angry?" she asked, surprised.

"No, I'm just... tired of doing nothing, and I have a lot of energy. Also, the tournament starts next week, and I need to get in shape for it."

"The tournament is about brawling, is it not?"

"Yeah."

"Then we should wrestle!"

She was a lot more enthusiastic now that the Gloss Forest topic had been dropped. I promised myself to question her about it later on, but I didn't feel like doing it yet. I wanted to forget that dreadful forest and the attacks. Playing with Topa would hopefully help.

I was hit by unexpected embarrassment when we were in the practice room. Topa had insisted in carrying me down the stairs, and I suspected she secretly enjoyed it, but while dangling from her muzzle, I had been trying to imagine myself playing fighting with her, and remembering how my cats did it I realized that I would not be able to do the same. To this day still, I did not feel like I was a vulpix, although my body was no longer human, and I did not feel like I could behave normally. I had no idea what the point of playing fighting was, or what I had to do, and I was genuinely scared of Topa's size compared to mine. As a human, I played fighting with my cats who were about as big as my hand, and it mostly consisted in me waving my hand around, sometimes rubbing my cat's belly to annoy it, waiting for the animal to jump on me, pretend to bite and scratch me before the game reset. It was a lot of fun for me mostly because I got to spend time with my cat, whom I loved, and I felt like I was making it happy by giving it attention and playing with it, but now that I was the pet, I couldn't picture myself playing the same way. I didn't want or need attention the way my pets did, and I certainly did not have the urge to play with my owner's hand. My idea of playing included outdoor sports, video games, board games and other social activities, not... this.

"I can't do this," I admitted after Topa put me down.

"Is something the matter?" she asked, trying to hide her disappointment.

"I can't do it," I repeated. "I'm not an animal, I can't play like this. I don't know what the point is. I don't know what I'm supposed to do."

"Well, this is a game," Topa replied. "Think of it as a sport? We pretend to be fighting until one of us admits defeat, then we take a short break and start again. It is a lot more fun than you would think! Did you not play fighting with your siblings?"

"Huh... no. Boys sometimes do, using sticks and pretending they're weapons, or with weapon replicas, but... girls don't do that."

"Why?"

I remained silent for a few seconds, unable to understand Topa's question.

"Pardon?" I asked, dumbfounded.

"That is weird. Why would females not play fighting? What were you doing when you were younger?"

"Well, it's... girls don't do that. Boys play with the weapons and soldiers and girls play with..."

I stopped, suddenly realizing why this sounded weird to the ninetales. For her, there were no such things as social norms or expectations. The only differences between males and females were the genitals, a few details in how their body was built, and other things related to mating and taking care of kids. Everything else I knew as a human and based my identity as a girl on were social constructs, from the clothes I wore to make-up, hair, toys, and gender roles. For pokemon and animals in general, being male or female had no impact on their early life at all, and only started being relevant when they reached puberty and became of age to reproduce. Male and female kits were treated the same way, and they played the same games.

"Nevermind," I whispered, suddenly grim and having lost any energy I had.

I felt like I could understand Topa's frustration a bit more when she was unable to help me. My life and concerns as a human probably felt completely alien to her, and there was no way she could ever understand any of them. I felt enlightened as her rant about humans creating problems for themselves over a month before finally made sense for me. I started questioning my own problems, wondering which of them were actual issues. What did it mean for me to be human, as opposed to being a vulpix? What was essential to it that this body prevented me from achieving? Was I only upset about losing my position at the top of the food chain, and taking the place of the pet in the master-pet relationship? Was I simply angry at losing the control over my life, and more importantly over the life of others, as I became an animal myself and my own life was now under control of my owner?

"Are you overthinking again?" Topa asked, slightly worried.

"I... No. I'm wondering... I only realized how much of my life as a human was controlled... no, defined by social norms. You asked me why girls don't play fighting, and when they want to play with superhero toys, or with weapons, their parents tend not to let them. Well, I honestly don't know. I've never even questioned it. It... it just was. It felt so basic to me, so... so normal. I never considered anything else was possible. I never considered anything else could be considered. But now that you're asking that question... it's all social norms. That's how humans work. The men go to work, provide the family with an income, they go to war to defend their house, and the women stay at home, take care of the children, care for their husband, do the chores... Everything is split. From our birth until our death, we're given roles and even our parents make sure we don't stray too far. Even down to very basic things like clothes, hair, or basic behaviour, there's what boys do and what girls do. There's no in-between, and if a girl or a boy steps out of their gender role, they get reprimanded. But... I'm a vulpix now, and I'm still a girl, but what does that change? What if I had turned into a male vulpix? There would be absolutely no difference. All the things that happened to me... none of them would have been any different."

Topa was listening carefully. She didn't look worried anymore, but I felt like she was still somewhat anxious.

"I've realized that... the way I defined myself as a human was entirely dependent on how others saw me. And now... now I'm not a human. I'm free to be whatever I want to be. There are no norms to cater to. No roles to follow. I'm... I am more free than when I was human."

I felt hurt when admitting that. I had basically just conceded that Topa was right all along, and I found it difficult for me, as a human, to be outsmarted by a fox. There were no more doubts in my head: Topa was more intelligent than I had ever been, even before turning into a vulpix, and that was a fatal hit to my ego.

"Why am I not happier?" I continued. "If I am more free, and I do not have any of the social problems I had as a human, why am I still feeling miserable? What exactly is it that made being human so treasurable to me?"

There was a moment of silence, during which Topa was thinking. She eventually turned to me with her usual motherly smile.

"Do you want to know what I think?"

"Yeah," I whispered, as if I was surrendering in shame, unwilling to admit that I needed her insight.

"I think you miss those chains you've lost when you lost your human body. You were a female, and your path was already all set for you. While you were free to choose what you wanted to pursue, you knew what you were expected to do, as you said yourself: raise children and care for your husband. It was easy. However, now that you are a vulpix, you no longer have this. Even if you were to have kits, you would care for them for a few months, maybe a few years, and they would move on to their own life quickly, leaving you back to your choices. In the end, you would still have to choose your path for yourself: there is nothing you have to conform to. Your future job as a police pokemon does not define you."

"I don't understand," I replied.

"Think of it like this," Topa continued after a short hesitation. "If I were to ask you what it means to be a human female, a girl as you said, what would you answer? You would mention clothing, hair, expected gender roles, and refer to how human society expects you to behave. How many of those actually define you? You have built your identity on what others think of you, or expect you to be. Now, as a vulpix, you lost access to this easy answer to the dreaded question 'who are you?'. You cannot describe yourself by your hair, your job, or what the world expects you to be. By becoming a vulpix, you have earned a terrible power: the power to make a choice. You have to decide for yourself who you want to be. You cannot have others define you anymore. You have to build your own identity, and this is a difficulty you have never faced before. That is why you have been feeling so bad."

"What does it mean, then? What does it mean to 'be' someone? What does it mean to have an identity?"

"Your identity is what makes you, you. There are... millions of humans, millions of vulpix, millions of ninetales, yet no two are the same. That is what makes them different: their identity. By transforming into a vulpix, you have lost what you based your human identity on, and you are now looking for who you are. That is what is making you depressed."

"I don't think you're right," I disagreed after a moment of thinking. "I... I never wanted to talk about it before, but I guess now is a good chance to. My... my very first concern when I woke up in this body was that I might eventually turn into a vulpix completely. Mentally too. And... and lose my human thinking, my memories and my experiences. I didn't want to turn into a vulpix."

"What are your concerns now? Do you still worry about that?"

"Yes? I think... I still don't want to be a vulpix. Or... I don't want not to be a human. I mean... I don't want not to be human anymore. All these memories I have, the mere fact I was human, it's all very important to me, and I don't want to lose it. I've been counting the days to make sure I remember, every morning, that I used to be human. But... I'm fine with being a vulpix, at the same time. I got used to this body, I got used to this life, even if it's not all that great... But at the same time, I don't want to forget I was human. So... why is this so important to me?"

"Being human was part of your identity, and you have lost that when you became a vulpix. You... lost a part of yourself, so to speak. Now, you are still holding on to it because you do not know what to fill the hole with. However... you assume that the rest of you is still the same, and I disagree with that. You do not have any of the things you defined yourself with anymore. Your very behaviour, as you noted yourself, has shifted from human to animal. Yet, you are still trying to keep part of your previous identity. Fact is: you have changed, and so has what you define yourself with. I believe your worry is unwarranted. You will never forget you were human, and you will never forget your human past."

"Why? What makes you so sure of it?"

Topa smiled.

"That is who you are," she replied. "You are a human who turned into a vulpix. That is your identity, and that is something you will never lose."


	24. Chapter 24

Although we didn't practice at all after that, I felt much better the following day. Not only did my paw and ear stop being painful, but Topa's long speech about my identity somehow made me feel better about myself. My new enthusiasm didn't get lost on her, and she sought to take advantage of it:

"Are you willing to try wrestling, now?" she directly asked.

"I... don't know," I admitted. "I still have no idea what I'm supposed to do. And... I'd rather practice battling."

"You will need to know how to wrestle for the tournament you mentioned," she insisted. "I think it would be best to at least try."

I felt thrown off by her sudden insistence. She had been very intent on having me play with her since I was attacked by the houndour and she wasn't hiding it. It was the first time she let me see what she actually wanted and I didn't understand why she seemed to care so much. I still failed to imagine myself playing with her like a kitten played with its mother. Overall, even though my body was young, I was not acting like a kit at all despite Topa's attempts at acting like my mother. Was that the reason why she was insisting so much? Did she want me to act more like a young vulpix?

Even then, why did animals play fighting like they did? Topa and I were more intelligent than the average cat; did that mean our games were different? As a human, the idea I had of "game" had nothing in common with what my pets thought games were. When I played with them, whether it be poking my cats' belly while he was pretending to maul my hand, or throwing balls at my dogs for them to bring them back to me, I was only playing with them because I enjoyed the time I spent in their company. Were those games actually fun for them? Did my dogs enjoy running in circles, giving me a ball that was instantly thrown back away? Did my cats have fun mauling my hand or were they actually trying to tell me to stop touching them?

Was that the reason why pokemon agreed to battling despite being considered basically gladiators and treated like slaves? Was that their idea of games, or something that was actually so enjoyable that it made it worth all the pain? From what I had experienced with the short battling practice with Topa, I didn't see how I could enjoy battling considering how painful being hit was - and I was hit with a move that was actually not effective, Ember. Topa had said that she herself was not very good at battling. Was it because she didn't enjoy it or simply lacked practice?

I quickly peeked at her. We were in the practice room, again, and she was sitting between me and the door, writhing in impatience. She was intently staring at me, hoping that her gaze would convince me to play with her, but despite feeling better about myself, I was still not willing to try.

"You are no longer human," Topa insisted when I told her. "I feel like you are still trying to live by the norms forced upon you when you were. You are a vulpix now, and playing fighting, wrestling and battling is perfectly normal, whether you are female or male."

"I just don't get the concept. I don't know what I'm supposed to do. And... I don't see how it would be fun. When I saw my cats playing together, I could never tell when they were playing or actually fighting. It scared me."

"Well, I can tell you we will be playing! You can retract your claws, if you are scared of being injured."

"I'd rather we practice battling," I admitted, looking away as if I was doing something wrong.

"Why? Battling actually involves a lot of pain. Remember when I fired Ember at you? That was a non-effective move, and it still got you panting in pain."

"I don't know, something about battling feels... exciting. Fun. But... wrestling doesn't sound fun to me.

"I see," Topa whispered, defeated.

She had clearly run out of arguments. Her beautiful tails were brought down, almost lifeless, and she dragged them along the floor as she carried herself out of the room without a word. I almost started a movement to stop her and ask her to practice with me, but I couldn't get myself to say anything, and I was left alone in the room staring at the door as it closed itself slowly and silently. Shortly after Topa left, the lights went out and I remained motionless where I was, wondering if I had made the right choice.

I lit a small flame in front of my muzzle, keeping my movement minimal so that the lights would not switch themselves back on. The fire I was creating was comfortably warm, but something about the flickering yellow light and how weak it was made me uncomfortable. I kept increasing the size of the flame I held until it lit up the entire room. At that point, my muzzle was slightly open, but I couldn't hold on to that flame for long and eventually stopped maintaining it. The room's light reacted and replaced the faint glow of my power. I could remember when I first tried to breathe fire and how much time I had spent practising, thinking I could never do it - yet, it was so easy for me only a few months later that I could do it without thinking. I fired a few Ember at the walls around me, repeating the same train of thought. Was I good enough at Ember for Topa to teach me other moves? Would I finally get to learn Will-O-Wisp?

The ninetales didn't come back and I spent the day alone in the room, entertaining myself as I could, but I ended up laying in the centre of the room, motionless, until the lights turned themselves off again and I was hidden in darkness. I wanted to practice Ember as we did before, firing Ember at each other and trying to dodge, but without a partner, that was impossible. I thought I knew how Topa felt when I consistently refused to wrestle with her. Was she refusing to practice with me as a petty revenge?

"Ruby?"

That was Agnes' voice coming from the other side of the door.

I raised my head, switching the lights back on, then rushed to join my trainer, pushing the mat-covered door open. Agnes was standing next to it, wearing a simple sports bra and shorts, with a towel put around her neck. She had obviously just been in the human gym, and she had a strong smell of sweat, which was surprisingly not unpleasant to me.

"How are you doing?" she asked, referring to my paw and ear.

I replied joyfully, tapping my wounded paw onto the floor to show that it was not painful anymore.

"That's good!" she smiled. "You'll be coming to school with me tomorrow. I have a surprise for you."

Her smile turned mysterious and I forced myself to smile back, but I didn't quite share her enthusiasm. Although I was aware that the surprise could only be good since it came from Agnes, it made me anxious. My experiences with the unknown had been so far overwhelmingly negative.

By the time dinner came, I still hadn't found the ninetales despite intently looking for her. I didn't dare ask to go outside, as I was unsure whether or not I was allowed to, and it would probably have been refused due to my recent injuries. Assuming she was somewhere in the garden, I carried on with my occupations, not fretting more than necessary.

I started being worried when she didn't come home for her meal, and I was left alone to eat. The servant attached to her seemed to have picked up on that as well and informed Agnes, who shrugged it off saying she was probably sleeping next to the swimming pool again. After the meal, Agnes stayed up watching TV, and I jumped on the couch next to her, lazily receiving petting that I didn't care about. I wanted to warn her that Topa was missing, but she was clearly not worried, making me think that my anxiety was misplaced.

Topa came back when I was already in bed. She smelled of flowers and grass, as expected, and said that she had found a snake she'd been chasing around, hoping that would excuse her absence. She went to her bed and no more words were exchanged. I didn't dare question her more, or talk at all, as she seemed to be exhausted, and tried to my best to fall asleep.

"Wake up, sleepy," Agnes whispered.

It was far too early for me to wake up. Agnes forced me up, explaining that she wanted to change my bandages and take the chance to brush me. She usually didn't bother brushing me herself and left that to Rakuen, who seemed to take great pleasure in running the brush through my fur. More importantly, I was never brushed on a Friday - it was usually a weekly occurrence, after I was washed.

"You're coming to school with me today," she explained. "As I said, I have a surprise for you. We're going to meet someone who will help you!"

Help me with what? The only one I knew could help me was Topa, by teaching me to use my powers, and teaching me how to behave like a normal vulpix in general. The person who would help me was at school, which meant that it was probably going to be related to my recent fight. Did she find someone to teach me battling?

Agnes was smiling widely, as if she were looking forward to whatever she had planned for me, but I didn't share her enthusiasm. Whoever I was going to meet, it only meant more social interactions for me and I didn't feel ready for them just yet. I would rather limit them to Ilma and Pico, if possible, until I was more confident about my body and, more importantly, my abilities. Again, I wasn't given a choice and I'd have to deal with it as best I could.

At the school, after greeting Pico and Derek as usual, Agnes sent them ahead saying that she was "waiting for someone" and she'd join them shortly. Derek didn't seem to know who she was talking about, which made me anxious. Did he need not to know? Was it important for him to be kept in the dark? Did that mean he did not approve of the person or pokemon I was going to meet?

After a very short wait, I saw Agnes turn out and wave at someone who was coming out of the main building. He was a male student, but his uniform was slightly different from Agnes'. A quick glance at his odour indicated that he was older than she was, which meant his uniform was probably the one worn by seniors.

"Hey Agnes!" he replied when he noticed her.

I stopped following their conversation as I was just noticing the man's pokemon: it was an espeon. He was slightly taller than Pico, but looked a loss less bulky. His entire body was very slender and his legs longer than the flareon's, giving him a very dignified look that reminded me of Topa. His fur, of a pale purple colour, was also a lot shorter, and his tail more akin to a cat's than the pure fluff Pico had. The tail split in two around its middle, and the two tips seemed to move independently. He had massive ears, even compared to a standard eevee's, and under each of them was a long aggregate of fur worn like side bangs. His eyes were the same as Pico's, but a red gem-like crystal decorated the pokemon's forehead.

Although his physique was rather underwhelming, even despite his size, he had the same sort of aura I felt when I met Ilma, albeit less powerful. I felt like he was stronger than Pico, probably due to having more experience, and became unsettled to be surrounded by pokemon that were all that strong.

"Why don't you say hello?" Agnes' friend told his pokemon.

The cat-like creature took a few steps forward before curtsying with a surprising dexterity by bending his front legs in a rather submissive manner, which caused Agnes to giggle.

"I keep forgetting about this," she commented, obviously referring to the espeon's polite gesture. "Hello there."

She knelt to pet him. I felt jealous that he was receiving so much attention, but simply ignored it.

"So that's the vulpix everyone's been talking about? She looks so young."

I turned my head away, pouting visibly at the mention of my age.

"How is she doing?" he asked.

"She's healing well from her recent wounds, but she's still grumpy. I assume the painkillers are not agreeing with her."

"Is she going be able to keep up with her training?"

"No problem!" Agnes replied proudly after glancing at me.

I didn't exactly share her confidence, but I felt happy that she had such trust in me, but at the same time, it made me sad, because I was certain that it was misplaced.

"So, how do you plan it?"

"She's still on sick leave for today, so as much time as Pride can today. After that... during noon break, I think. Ruby generally spends her time lounging in the gym with Pico, it would be good to have her do something so she isn't bored."

"Pride is free today," Agnes' friend noticed after a short hesitation. "How do you like that, Pride?"

He turned to his pokemon, who replied he was fine.

"Works for us," the espeon's trainer then agreed.

"Ruby will just wait in the gym. I don't like the idea of sending her off to find Pride on her own."

I couldn't quite disagree with that. So Pride was the espeon... and they were planning something between him and me. Was he going to train me?

"Let's go," Agnes said, hearing the school bell ringing to signal the start of classes. "Have fun, you two. And, Ruby, you can trust Pride. He will help you."

That last line was directed at us two pokemon, and before I could react, Agnes and her friend were already on her way to be swallowed by the sea of students going to their classes, leaving me alone with the espeon.

"Hello!" he said, turning to me before our trainers entered the building. "My name is Pride."

"I'm Ruby," I replied, lacking confidence.

The espeon stood before me in silence. I could feel his eyes exploring every inch of my fur, making me extremely uncomfortable.

"You are indeed young," he commented. "And you have such a pretty name. You were adopted from the wild, right?"

"Yeah?" I replied sharply.

The last time I was asked similar question was by a houndour, and shortly after I was fighting for my life. Although I didn't get similar vibes from this pokemon, I felt uneasy. I caught myself hoping Pico would be with me.

"You must be quite the gem, for Agnes to adopt you directly. Humans adopting wild pokemon is fairly rare."

"She saved my life," I explained.

"I did not mean it's a bad thing to be adopted," the espeon hurried to explain, trying to lift the misunderstanding. "Say, would you mind walking? There's a wood behind the school that the humans use as exercise ground, I'd like to go there. I don't like being in the open like this, and I don't want any pesky pokemon to be interrupting us."

On the one hand, I disliked the idea of going into a forest alone with another pokemon, but on the other hand, Agnes did say I could trust him and I felt like I agreed with him. If I was famous, as Pride's trainer had said, then there was no doubt some pokemon would be staring.

"Alright," I agreed.

As we started walking, the espeon decided to engage in small talk, probably to try and make me more comfortable:

"Do you know where your name comes from?"

"Ruby? It's a red gem stone."

"I mean why Agnes named you that way."

"She loves gemstones. And... my fur is sort of red, so I guess Ruby was fitting."

"Oh, I like that. That makes you precious to her. How long did it take for her to find a name?"

"I don't know. She gave me the name after I was out of the pokemon centre. So... a week?"

"Interesting," he whispered as an answer, more for himself than for me.

"What?"

"She named you after something she loves only a week after meeting you, and shortly after adopting you. You're definitely very precious to her. I guess she wasn't lying when she said she trusts you."

"Why are you so interested in my name?" I pouted, unhappy with his judging what Agnes thought of me.

"I've come to the realization that humans put a name on things thinking it helps them understand them. Even for things they don't understand, they have names ready. They give names to the people and animals they like. And, most of the time, these names have a meaning. Agnes didn't name you randomly - she named you after something she loved. I see two possibilities for this. First is, since humans are so intent on explaining and understanding everything, putting a label on something they don't understand gives them some form of control over it, and gives them the false impression that they have some level of understanding. Second is... it's a form of appropriation. Agnes gave you a name after she adopted you. She didn't ask you for your name, or try to ask you what you'd like to be called. Now... the name she chose is also interesting. I've heard my trainer talk about other pokemon names, and not all of them make sense to me, but I am certain they all make sense to the human who gave it. They give names based on what they think or feel about the pokemon. Agnes saved your life, which is surely something she's happy about, so you staying around makes her feel better. Like gems, I suppose? Hence the Ruby name. If she liked trees, she would probably have named you after a tree."

"What is your point?"

"My point is, humans are interesting, and names in particular have a very special place in their hearts."

"What about yours, then? Why are you named Pride?"

"Do you actually want to hear the story?"

"Yes," I replied, absolutely genuine.

We had reached the woods the espeon had mentioned and stopped walking. He sat down on a pack of leaves. I felt powerfully outsmarted by that pokemon, who appeared to be even more intelligent than Topa, and his opinion on names made me curious to know where his came from.

"I used to be wild, like you," he started. "Sean grew up in a town not far from here, on the other side of the White Hat. He and his family were hiking through the mountains, and when they were on a break to eat, they noticed I had been spying on them. His parents didn't care, but he was curious. What struck me most is that he didn't react the way most people do. When they see an animal, or a pokemon, they'll try to lure it closer, call it, give it food, just for a chance to pet it, right? He didn't. He didn't offer me any food, or try to lure me closer. He just said hello and waved at me, and seeing I wasn't reacting went back to his meal. I followed them and showed myself several times, but he never tried to lure me close to him. He would just wave hello, and continue if I didn't reply. I just followed him all day and he kept saying hello, but not once did he disrespect me by treating me like a random wild animal. He ended up hiking often through the same path, and I'd follow him every time. At one point I decided to test him, and came up to him to give him a random rock I found."

Pride smiled. These were obviously very happy memories for him.

"He took it and thanked me, but didn't try touching me or anything. He even gave me something back. It was the first time I had been treated so considerately and even given something. After that, I just hiked with them. His parents didn't seem to care and were very indifferent, but he was very happy. I had to push him myself before he dared touch me. We just played together while hiking. In the evening, before going back to his house, he asked me if I wanted to go home with him."

"Agnes didn't ask me... she just said 'I'm adopting her' and when I was out of the pokemon centre, I was her pokemon."

There was a distinct sadness in my voice. I had never thought about it before, but I had never had a choice in the situation. I had been too overwhelmed by the transformation to realize it, then too busy with my new life unfolding, but I had basically been adopted. Pride, on the other hand, made the conscious decision to follow his human.

"How did he come to name you Pride then?" I asked.

"I was proud. I found a human that treats me with respect and doesn't consider me less intelligent than he is. You won't find many of these. He just noticed and named me after that."

"Do you like your name?"

"I do! It's a reminder of how I got to meet Sean. What about you? Do you like yours?"

I didn't answer. I felt jealous of his story, which felt so much better than mine. I had just been... kidnapped. Not only had I been stolen from my previous life, but even my new life had been stolen from its previous life. There was absolutely nothing I had a say in, not even the job I was going to work.

"Why are you following your trainer?" I asked, broken hearted.

"He's my friend. We've spent more than a week slowly building a relationship, and now we're going to be working together. I'm happy to be with him for his job."

"Do you spend time with him?"

"Of course! Outside of classes, we play a lot, practice together, exercise together. I sleep with him either on his bed or by his side."

It took him a few seconds to realize why I was silent, staring at the dirt below my paws.

"You don't do that with Agnes?"

"No," I replied bluntly after a moment of silence.

Pride seemed to give a hint of movement several times, only to stay back, seemingly hesitating on what he should be doing. He had certainly not planned the conversation would turn this way.

"Surely there's something you two do together, right?"

"No," I explained. "Sometimes she helps the maids when it comes to washing me, but... I have an assigned maid that does everything. Agnes... I don't spend time with Agnes."

My voice seemed to break as I was saying that and I could feel the unpleasant feeling of tears forming growing in my throat.

"Well, she still loves you," Pride said, attempting to cheer me up. "The maid is just doing her job, but Agnes considers you a friend."

"I'm not a friend," I whispered. "I'm just a pet."

There was a long silence after this, during which I was focusing on not crying. I had never looked at it that way, but now that Pride mentioned it, I felt like Agnes didn't actually love me. She didn't have the same behaviour towards me as I did towards my pet, and she certainly didn't long to spend time with me. What if I was wrong and she only had adopted me because of a moral obligation after saving my life? Then she didn't actually love me. Was that true of others too? What about Topa?

I felt like my stomach turned inside out when I thought about her. Was she feeling towards me the way I felt towards Agnes? Did she genuinely love me, and my constant refusal to play with her gave her the feeling I didn't love her back? Did I unconsciously hurt her with my hesitations?

"Cheer up," Pride said, still unsure whether or not he could touch me. "You're wounded now, and even when she adopted you, you were. I'm sure she's just scared of hurting you. Show her you want to spend time with her. Ask her for a bit of her time. I'm sure she'll oblige."

I was reminded of Topa explicitly saying she wanted to play with me, and her sad reaction after I refused so bluntly. She was definitely depressed, and it was my fault - because I didn't love her as much as I should have. I loved Agnes with all my heart, and Topa knew that - did she want the love I had for my human for herself? Was she jealous of it? Her behaviour didn't reek of jealousy - it felt more like she was... lonely. She spent her time with me, even if it was just watching me struggle to learn to breathe fire. As soon as I became better, she started asking me to play with her. I had been with her for about forty days, and for each and every one of them she had taken on her time to stay with me, nurse me and make sure I was getting better, but I had done absolutely nothing for her in return. I couldn't even get over myself to play with her.

"Are you alright?" the espeon asked, worried.

"I'll be fine," I replied after a deep breath.

Thinking back about Topa, I felt awful about how bad a friend I had been to her. I had no reason to be so focused on myself anymore, now that my situation was better, and I was resolute to fix that.

It took me a few minutes to get a hold of myself, but once I had control of my emotions, I turned to the espeon, going back to the original reason why we were together. I felt like I could trust him, and he certainly seemed very friendly.

"So, why are we here? What does Agnes want from you?"

"She hasn't told you?"

"No, she said she had a surprise. I guess you're the surprise?"

"I hope I'm a good surprise then! I'm going to teach you to use your psychic powers."


	25. Chapter 25

I remained speechless for a few seconds, unable to understand how that was a surprise or what it actually meant.

"Why?" I eventually asked.

Pride seemed to be surprised by the question.

"You don't want to learn that?"

"Of course I do," I replied sharply. "But where does this come from?"

"Oh. Agnes wants you to become stronger, and part of that includes learning new moves and new powers. From what I've been told, you live with a ninetales, and you have Pico around too, so you won't need more help with your fire powers. The ninetales can also teach you other moves that you might need, so Agnes wanted to focus on your psychic powers. They might not be of much use for you in an actual fight, but they will help you develop stronger powers over time and learn new moves."

I felt hurt at the idea that Agnes thought I was too weak, but at the same time, I also felt like I agreed with it. Were it not for Pico punting the houndour away, I probably would have been killed. Contrary to what Ilma had said, all my intelligence was unable to help me in the fight, and I had to learn to rely on raw instincts and skill. That would probably come as I practised and was taught how to fight, but learning new moves sounded like a reasonable way to help me develop my powers.

"What makes you think that I even have psychic powers?"

The espeon's eyes widened a bit.

"All vulpix have psychic powers," he simply replied.

"What? But... Topa said otherwise."

"Who's Topa?"

"The ninetales I live with. She said that not all vulpix do."

Pride chuckled nervously. He clearly wasn't sure whether I was asking a genuine question or just being negative because of my recent fight.

"I'm not sure what she told you, but you must have misunderstood. Every vulpix has psychic powers, although some are better than others at them. She probably just meant that she doesn't know how to use hers."

"I guess," I replied after a momentary silence, not willing to continue the conversation.

I clearly remembered her wording, and there was no room for doubt. She did say that not all vulpix had psychic powers, and she in particular did not.

"What about Ghost-type moves?" I asked.

"Same," he replied. "All vulpix have some. Does she not know any either?"

"She does," I hazarded. "At least, she knows Confuse Ray."

"Ah, Confuse Ray. Great one! You should learn it as soon as you can."

"I'd like to, but..."

Thinking back about all the moves I knew for certain Topa knew, the one I wanted to learn most was Will-O-Wisp. After a short hesitation, I admitted that to the espeon.

"Will-O-Wisp is more difficult to use in a battle, I think," he explained. "I am no expert, though. Topa certainly knows more than I do about that!"

"She doesn't want to teach me it," I whined, hoping to get some moral support from him.

"I can understand why," he replied, betraying me. "It's a difficult move to learn. There are easier moves you should know that can be used in battle."

I ostensibly sulked, unhappy about him agreeing with Topa. This only lasted a short moment, as my thoughts came back to what I had just been told. If all vulpix did have psychic moves, why did Topa tell me otherwise?

"So, what do you think?" Pride asked me, cutting my thinking short.

"Heh... fine," I replied without enthusiasm. "I don't know what I can use psychic powers for anyway. What moves can I even learn?"

"Extrasensory at the very least," Pride started listing, taking time to think. "Maybe Hypnosis, but few vulpix are able to learn it. And, outside of pokemon battles, you're all capable of basic telekinesis."

"I see," I whispered.

The idea of being able to move objects with my mind was appealing, but it sounded like I wouldn't be able to use it for anything but showing off. It was a bit of a downer, knowing that I was capable of such great powers, but that I would be so limited.

"And you can learn Dark-type moves too!" Pride suddenly said, excited. "Vulpix is a such a wonder. I don't know many pokemon that can learn moves from all three sides of the psychic triangle!"

"The what?"

"The psychic triangle. Psychic, Ghost and Dark. They are very similar in how they work, and they have similar effects."

"Like what?"

"In a battle, all three types use a pokemon's own power against them. For example, psychic and extrasensory will make you detonate a pokemon's reserve of energy to damage them. Nightmare will have a similar effect on a drowsy pokemon. Torment will lock your foe's powers after they use a move. There are also some summoning moves, like Bite for Dark, Shadow Ball for Ghost, and Psychic Fangs for Psychic. Of course, there are differences, but the global principle behind them is similar. In the same fashion, humans group the Ground, Rock and Steel types together."

"I see."

I didn't remember ever hearing of such grouping, but it did make sense, even with what I knew of the games.

"What's special about that, then?"

"Vulpix is one of the few pokemon that can access the psychic triangle despite not sharing any of its types," Pride answered. "That also gives you access to very interesting moves like Will-O-Wisp, which is commonly associated with and mistaken for a Ghost-type move, or Protect, which is a Normal-type move but gets mistaken for a Psychic one. This lead to a lot of rumours about vulpix and ninetales, since those three types in particular are fascinating for humans."

"I've probably heard some," I sighed, raising my eyes to the sky.

Pride smiled.

"Vulpix is a popular pokemon in households. Unfortunately, they are generally rather weak in combat, and there are far better choices for the military, so it's not a common pokemon around here."

"Military? What?"

"You're part of the military," Pride replied, surprised. "You didn't know?"

"But... I don't want to be a soldier!"

Especially after hearing Ilma's story, the idea of being a soldier and going to war was rather terrifying.

To my surprise, Pride laughed.

"You won't be a soldier, silly! The military refers to any humans with the right to bear arms. This includes, of course, the army, but also policemen and special forces. You won't be going to war!"

I looked away, embarrassed by my mistake. This wasn't what the word meant in my world. Were there other words that had their meaning changed?

"Will you be teaching me other moves?" I inquired.

"Once you are comfortable with at least telekinesis, sure! I'm not sure which ones you'll be able to learn, but we can try with basic ones. Telekinesis is the most important, though."

"Why? It can't be used in combat."

Pride smiled.

"Ilma would have loved that remark. It implies that, for you, combat is the most important. I would disagree with that, but to each their own, right? The thing about telekinesis is it's the base for almost every psychic move ever, and it's going to make it easier for you to learn them. Trying to learn even Protect without being capable of telekinesis is a hassle. Think of it as... breathing fire for fire-type moves. It's the basics."

"I don't want to learn Protect," I pouted.

"We'll see about that later! Telekinesis first."

"So... when do we start?"

"Not today, I fear," Pride replied. "We should be able to start soon though. Generally when humans are eating, so we have about two hours every day for that. Agnes doesn't want you to start yet until she's certain you're healed."

"I'm fine," I commented with assurance.

"That's for Agnes to decide."

I wasn't exactly happy with that, but I could only understand Agnes' caution. Still, the idea of spending my lunch breaks being trained by another pokemon, especially one as strong as Pride, was very enticing, and I found myself looking forward to it.

However... I was puzzled by Topa's weird wording. "I do not have any" was what she said. There was no room for interpretation here. Did she purposely lie to me, or had she simply used the wrong words? I didn't recall any times when I even considered she could have been lying to me, and I didn't see why she should, but this felt very odd to me.

"So..." Pride whispered, leaning closer to me. "How do you like the idea?"

I took some time to think about it. What good would those powers be for me? I wasn't even sure what exactly I was going to be taught. Telekinesis? By the sounds of it, it would be completely useless to me. Why not start directly with more useful moves?

Even then... What was the difference between actual psychic powers and their unpower version? Would I be using the same sort of powers for telekinesis as I would be for Extrasensory? I could feel that breathing real fire and throwing an Ember were different processes. Would it be the same for this type, or any other?

"I don't know. It sounds like it's going to take a lot of work. I..."

I stopped myself, conscious that I almost made a big mistake. I couldn't be talking about how difficult it had been for me to learn Ember. How much was I supposed to know about other pokemon's powers? Topa seemed to be very knowledgeable, but she was significantly older and she was probably taught by her mother. I was supposedly still a child, and no one knew what happened to my biological mother.

My body's mother... Was she even alive? Had she been frantically looking for her child? Did she know that her kit had been killed? What would happen if I stumbled upon her, as I would certainly not recognize her?

"Hey."

Pride poked me with his tails, stroking the top of my head.

"Of course it's going to take work. Especially in the beginning, when you learn to recognize psychic powers. Then you'll have to learn to reproduce them, and that's just for telekinesis. I don't know how long it took you to learn to breathe fire and Ember, but expect this to take a lot longer!"

"That's not very encouraging," I pouted.

Apparently, it was normal for kits to struggle with learning their first powers, but I was still unsure whether or not they were supposed to struggle less than I did. Topa said that I was learning fast, but that could have been just to cheer me up.

"Do you think I can do it?" I asked, looking for some support.

"Certainly. I haven't seen how good you are with your current powers, nor would I really be able to tell, but Pico said you were particularly intelligent. Psychic ability is closely related to intelligence, so if Pico is right, you should be doing really well!"

I was surprised to hear what Pico thought. Was I actually particularly intelligent? I remembered feeling less intelligent than Topa, which made me rather depressed at the time, but I didn't know how smart other pokemon were supposed to be. Was the vulpix evolution line among the most intelligent pokemon? What about psychic types, like espeon?

"I'm not particularly intelligent," I complained.

"Doesn't matter," Pride replied. "If you work hard enough, you'll be able to learn these powers. Just don't expect it to take an hour!"

I looked away. My enthusiasm was pretty much gone, and the espeon was mostly to blame for that, but I knew he was right. I needed to work as hard as I could. By learning new powers, I had a greater chance to convince Topa to teach me more, and I could even perhaps figure out something that would make it easier for me to learn more in the future.

"Alright," I conceded. "I'll try. Are we going to practice battling or only telekinesis?"

"Only telekinesis for the time being, but battling would be interesting once you learn some moves!"

There was no way battling with that monster would be interesting. He could probably knock me out in a few seconds. I had absolutely no experience in battling, while he did, and probably not just from police school.

"I don't want to battle with you," I sighed. "You're too strong."

"You will be strong too eventually," Pride answered, patting me on the back. "But you'll have to work hard!"

We didn't talk much after that. I felt like my motivation was gone, but at the same time, I was looking forward to being stronger - strong enough to be able to battle with him.

Back at the mansion, I looked for Topa inside, but she was nowhere to be found. Assuming she was just in the gardens, I went to my pillow, jumping on the chance to plan the talk properly. I was looking forward to talking to her and clear that confusion, but at the same time, I was feeling nervous and strangely cautious. I felt like I should avoid the subject, but I had to know, and chasing her to bring it up was certainly not a good idea. She would inevitably ask why Agnes wanted me to go to school despite my wounds, and all I had to do was describe my discussion with Pride and his idea to raise the question naturally. I wasn't quite sure how to ask her... or even what exactly to ask. It would probably be best to let things unfold and follow the conversation.

She came back right in time for dinner, followed by Melissa. After eating, we went back to her room as expected, but I noticed something that put me off. Her scent was weird. It was less strong, as if she were less herself than usual. The odours from the outside were still abnormally noticeable on her fur, and even poking her with my muzzle left a lasting mark. Her personal scent was overwhelmed by others, making me feel like she was occulted by the world. This could surely be used to her advantage in a survival situation, but I had the feeling that it was neither normal nor even controlled. Some alarm was ringing loudly in my head, and I was unable to switch it off, or even listen to it.

"How was your day?" I asked, breaking the silence.

Topa seemed to be surprised by me being the one to start a conversation, but I noticed an ephemeral smile on her beautiful face.

"Quite nice!" she replied with her normal enthusiasm. "I spent a lot of time playing with Melissa after she came back from school. I am rather tired, but it was certainly fun."

She didn't look the slightest bit tired, but she did have Melissa's scent on her. Her heart was beating slightly faster than usual, but it wasn't an indication of anything.

"What did you play?" I pushed, actually interested.

"Lots of running. She has physical training lessons... I believe she calls them sports class? There will be exams soon and she wanted to train beforehand, so I joined her. I do not know what her exams consist of, but we simply ran from one end of the garden to the other. When she got tired, we played with a ball until she decided she had enough."

I looked away with a knot in my stomach. I remembered the conversation with Pride and how Agnes never did anything with me. Melissa seemed to spend at least some time playing with Topa, and even if it were just stupid games like running or throwing a ball, I found myself wishing my own trainer would play those with me. Was I even a pet for her? I played with my pets a lot when I was human, and I was certain that they appreciated it, but Agnes didn't play with me. I was probably just... a tool for her job, and not even a pet.

"Are you alright?" Topa whispered, worried.

I didn't realize that my ears and tails were laid, giving away obvious hints that I was not all that happy. I shook my head to give myself better control of them. It would probably be best to be honest with her, as that would invite honesty back, and it would probably help me bring the subject I wanted to talk about.

"I'm fine, it's just that..."

Would mentioning Pride now be a good idea? If I just threw my ideas without a context, Topa would assume that I was depressed again, which was wrong - although Pride's story about his trainer did make me rather upset about my own relationship with me - and I needed to make her see that I wasn't if I wanted to be trusted. If I showed any signs of not being well, she would probably refuse to talk seriously for fear to hurt me.

"I'm a bit upset," I ended up carefully admitting.

"Is it related to what you did at school? Did something happen?"

I smiled internally. Her bringing up the school topic was a lot better for me, and I could mention Pride and our talk far more easily and naturally. All I had to do now was talk about him, repeat his story and compare it to mine, then mention the psychic powers and feint enthusiasm then confusion so that I could ask her if she really meant that she didn't have any, or simply that she didn't know how to use them.

"I met an espeon called Pride. We talked about... how we met our human and..."

The knot in my stomach seemed to tighten as my airways felt blocked for a fraction of a second, as if I were choking for one heartbeat.

I repeated Pride's story as well as I remembered it, and mentioned the discussion that followed.

"I was born in this family," Topa said. "I was not even aware it was possible for humans to ask pokemon to come with them. I imagined all pokemon were either born in their family or adopted like you were. This is interesting."

She stayed silent for a few seconds.

"Why does this make you upset?" she eventually inquired.

"Agnes doesn't do anything with me. I'm... I'm not even a pet for her."

"She is just being cautious. You get injured fairly often, it is only fair to be careful."

"You can't throw the she's cautious excuse all the time," I pouted. "She just doesn't want to do anything with me outside of school."

The conversation wasn't taking the turn I was hoping for. I needed to get it back on track and bring up the other topic.

"No," I said. "She didn't make me meet Pride because she was worried about me. It was about my performances at school."

"Oh," she whispered after a short hesitation. "What was it about then?"

I looked away. There was no way I could feint excitement or enthusiasm anymore, considering the turn the conversation had taken.

"She thinks I'm too weak," I admitted. "She wants Pride to teach me how to use my psychic powers so I can start learning new moves."

I closely watched Topa's reaction, but noticed nothing odd.

"That is a good idea," she agreed. "We can work on fire-type moves at home in parallel to training with Pride at school. This will be a lot of effort, though. Are you sure you can handle it?"

Unhappy about how easily she had changed the topic, I muttered a sharp "yeah" that sounded a lot angrier than I meant to show.

"I don't want to be taken care of by another evolved pokemon," I pouted, trying to justify my angry response. "What are others going to think? I'd rather learn psychic powers from you."

"I cannot teach you. I told you before that I do not have any psychic powers."

She was insisting on that exact wording. I needed to probe further.

"Why would I have any then?"

"Most vulpix are capable of it. The chances you are not are very low."

There was no room for error. Pride said that all vulpix had psychic powers, and Topa was clearly saying otherwise. Who should I believe? Should I bring it up now? It felt like a perfect opportunity, but I wasn't sure how to mention it without sounding like I was accusing Topa of lying.

I didn't realize that my head was moving on its own, slightly tilted, while my eyes were surveying the room as if I could find my answers written on the walls. Topa picked up on that movement.

"Are you alright? You look confused."

I secretly gasped, less from surprise than from relief. This was perfect.

"Pride said..."

I hesitated, still unsure of what I should be saying. I knew Topa was feeling sad, and I was afraid of how she would react if it sounded like I was accusing her of not telling me the truth.

"He said that all vulpix have psychic powers, and that you too should have some. But you say you don't, so... I'm not sure who to believe."

Topa's eyes widened slightly and she remained silent for several minutes, seemingly deep in thought. Her heart was beating a lot faster, and it was rather clear that she was nervous.

"I apologize," she eventually said. "My wording is confusing. Pride is correct in saying that all vulpix are able to use psychic powers."

"What about you, then?" I pushed. "You said you didn't have any."

She looked away, clearly uncomfortable.

"Sorry," she simply whispered.

Turning her back to me, she nested on her pillow and didn't say a single word. I was sitting on mine, looking down on her, and although I should be feeling victorious to have outsmarted her and correctly guessed that she had lied to me, I was feeling miserable. She was completely motionless in front of me, and although I could hear her heart beating, she looked like she wasn't even alive. I nested on my own pillow, turning my back to her as well, cursing myself for going too far in an attempt to figure out the truth.


End file.
